the Conscience of all true Christians as if he had been then summus Pontifex or that the Primitive Church was not as well restrain'd de Jure by the Doctrine of Christ's Apostles as de facto from bearing Arms against such Princes as were then Ethnicks and transferring of their Kingdoms from them unto any others or that the Apostles at that time if they had found the Christians of sufficient force for number provision and furniture of Warlike Engines to have Deposed those Pagan Princes that were then both Enemies ☜ and Persecutors of all that believed in Christ would no doubt have moved and authorized them to have made War against such their Princes and absolved them from performing any longer that obedience which they as Men temporizing had in their Writings prescribed unto them or that when afterward Christians were grown able for number and strength to have opposed themselves by force against their Emperors being Wicked and Persecutors they might lawfully so have done for any thing that is in the New Testament to the contrary he doth greatly err If any Man shall affirm that it is not a most profane impiety Can. 10. l. 2. tending altogether to the discredit of the Scriptures for any Man to hold that St. Peter and St. Paul had so instructed the Christians in their times as that they knew if they had been able they might without offence to God have deposed Nero from his Empire or that the Christians in Tertullian's time when they profess'd that notwithstanding their numbers and forces were so great as they had been able to have distress'd very greatly the Estate of the Emperors being then Persecutors they might not so do because Christ their Master had taught them otherwise ought not to be a sufficient Warrant for all true Christians to detest those Men in these days and for ever hereafter who contrary to the Example of the said Christians in the Primitive Church and the Doctrins of Christ which were then taught them do endeavor to perswade them when they shall have sufficient Forces to rebel against such Kings and Emperors at the Pope's commandment and to thrust them from their Kingdoms and Empires ☞ or that this devilish Doctrine of animating Subjects to Rebellion when they are able against their Sovereigns either for their Cruelty Heresie or Apostacy was ever taught in the Church of Christ by any of the Ancient Fathers during the Reigns of Dioclesian or Julian the Apostate or Valens the Arrian or of any other the Wicked Emperors before them or that it is not a wicked perverting of the Apostles words to the Corinthians touching their choice of Arbitrators to end dissentions among themselves rather than draw their Brethren before Judges that were Infidels to infer thereof either that St. Paul intended thereby to impeach in any sort the Authority of the Civil Magistrates as if he had meant they should have chosen such Judges as by civil Authority might otherwise have bound them than by their own consents to have stood to their award or to authorize Christian Subjects when they are able to thrust their Sovereigns from their Royal Seats and to chuse themselves new Kings in their places he doth greatly err But it were requisite to transcribe almost that whole admirable Treatise should I give the Reader a view of all those passages that vindicate the Divine Right of Kings and assert the necessity of Subjects being obedient to them while I forbear in expectancy that the most venerable owner of that great Treasure will very speedily make the World happy in the publication of so elaborate a work SECT V. Some few years after this King James ordered to be Printed and had in every Church a little Treatise called Deus Rex which was publish'd both in Latin and English and as I am very credibly inform'd drawn up by Bishop Overal which was reprinted in English Anno 1663. by the especial command of King Charles II. and therein the Nation is taught their duty toward their Superiors thus In the Allegiance of a Subject to his Sovereign the evil he is to eschew is 1. Evil in action p. 15 16. edit 1663. for he is not to touch him with any evil touch not to stretch out his hand against his most sacred Person nor so much as to affright or disgrace him by cutting the lap of his Garment 2. Evil in words for he is not to curse his Ruler 3. Evil in cogitation for he is not to curse the King in his thought and all this is proved by many Texts of Scripture placed in the Margin Now if the Subjects of our Sovereign out of their Allegiance to His Majesty are to succor and defend him even with the hazard of their lives c. and the bond of this Allegiance is inviolable and cannot by any means be dissolv'd then c. Eccles 8.2 p. 17. is an evident Testimony that Kings are subject unto God ☜ and have no mortal Man their superior who may require of them an account of their doings and punish them by any Judicial Sentence which Doctrine is excellently confirm'd by the instance of David in the case of Uriah and the Prophet Nathan 's carriage towards him after which 't is said that God only gave unto Saul Kingly Power and not the People p. 19. p. 29 30. c. who are said to make him King i. e. approving him as made by God c. But was not Saul a Tyrant a bloody Oppressor did not the blood of so many Innocents cry to God for vengeance and by his special commandment whoso sheds man's blood by man shall his blood be shed deserve death Yet David by God's own appointment design'd to the Kingdom says the Lord keep me from doing that thing unto my Master the Lord 's Anointed c. the Bishop of Rome and by parity of reason any other Person p. 35. if I Judge aright cannot dispense with the Law of Nature which from the first beginning of the reasonable Creature is unchangeable nor with the Moral Law of God whose Precepts are indispensible but the duty of Subjects in obedience to their Sovereign is grounded upon the Law of Nature beginning with our first beginning for as we are Born Sons so are we Born Subjects p. 38. Obj. But is there no means to stay the fury of a Sovereign command if he should be so tyrannous and profane as to endeavour to oppress the whole Church at once and utterly to extinguish the Light of Christian Religion Princes in their rage may endeavour wholly to destroy God's Church Ans but in vain because Christ hath so built it on a Rock that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and when they do labour to effect so heinous an impiety the only means we have to appease their fury is serious repentance for our sins which have brought this chastisement upon us and humble prayer unto God who guides
Doctrines to murder Princes are not of the Gospel-Spirit Bishop Hacket's Sermons on Psal xli 9. on the Gowry's Conspiracy p. 740. 741. Surely above all Men if the Clergy be not careful to set forth the honor of this day with great Honour and Solemnity it is their Ignorance or their Negligence Had these furious Sword-men that laid their Weapons to his Throat found an austere Master nay a Tyrant they must have born with it and not touch the Man that bears the Character of the Lord 's Anointed Dr. Sharp before the House of Commons Apr. 11. 1679. p. 35. O may God so inspire you That by your means the Person of his sacred Majesty and the Rights of his Crown may be secured against all wicked Attempts And p. 39. Let us hate all Tricks and Devices and Equivocations both in our Words and in Carriage Let us be constantly and inflexibly loyal to our Prince and let no consideration in the World make us violate our Allegiance to him And in his Sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor 1680. speaking of the upright Man He is one studiously endeavouring to preserve his Allegiance to his Prince Pag. 19. He is a Man that honors the King that is observant of the Laws that is true to the Government and meddles not with them that are given to change In his Sermon preached at the Yorkshire Feast Feb. 17. 16 79 / 80. p. 17. We may do a great deal of good by our good Examples of Loyalty SECT XXII And to evince that this hath been the unquestion'd Doctrine of all the Members of this Church I shall subjoin many other Testimonies * Bish of Lincoln Principl and Posit p. 7. That England is a Monarchy the Crown Imperial and our Kings supreme Governors and sole supreme Governors of this Realm and all other their Dominions will I believe I am sure it should be granted seeing our Authentick Laws and Statutes do so expresly and so often say it In our Oath of Supremacy we swear That the King is the only supreme Governor supreme so none not the Pope above him and only supreme so none coordinate or equal to him so that by our known Laws our King is solo Deo minor invested with such a Supremacy as excludes both Pope and People and all the World God Almighty only excepted by whom Kings do reign from having any Power Jurisdiction or Authority over him This Book hath its Imprimatur not from any mean hand but from my Lord Bishop of London himself which is to me a plain implication that his Lordship did then own the Doctrine and so we have another Testimony to the Truth †Burnet's Vind. c. printed at Glascow p. 7. c. The Vindication of the Authority c. of the Church is full to this purpose Obj. May not Subjects when opprest in their establish'd Religion defend themselves and resist the Magistrate doth not the Law of Nature direct Men to defend themselves when unjustly assaulted Answ We must distinguish between the Laws of Nature and the Rights and Permissions of Nature now self-defence cannot be a Law of Nature ☜ for then it could never be dispenc'd with without a Sin nay were a man never so criminal he ought not to suffer himself to be killed neither should any Malefactor submit to the sentence of the Judge but stand to his defence by all the force he could raise and it will not serve turn to say for the good of Society he ought to submit for no Man must violate the Laws of Nature were it on never so good a design Christ's dying for us shews that self-defence can be no Law of Nature otherwise Christ who fulfilled all Righteousness had contradicted the Laws of Nature ‖ Pag. 10. He then proceeds to demonstrate that Magistrates derive not their Power from the Surrender of the People for none can surrender what they have not ☜ Take then a multitude of People not yet associated none of them hath power of his own Life neither hath he power of his Neighbor's since no Man out of Society may kill another be his Crime never so great much less be his own Murtherer A multitude of People not yet associated are but so many individual Persons therefore the Power of the Sword is not from the People nor is any of their Delegation but is from God. * Pag. 35. Consider that Christ was to fulfill all Righteousness if then the Laws of Nature exact our Defence in case of unjust Persecution for Religion ☜ he was bound to that Law as well as we for he came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law both by his Example and Precepts if then you charge the Doctrine of Absolute Submission as brutish or stupid or as contrary to the Law of Nature see you do not run into Blasphemy by charging that Holy One foolishly for whatever he knew of the secret Will of God he was to follow his revealed Will in his Actions †Pag. 39. If fighting at that time when Saint Peter drew his Sword for preserving Christ from the Jews were contrary to the Nature of his Kingdom so the Rule of the Gospel binding all the succeeding Ages of the Church no less than those to whom it was first deliver'd what was then contrary to the nature of Christ's Kingdom will be so still * P. 42. I shall add one thing which all Casuists hold a safe Rule in matters that are doubtful viz. That we ought to follow that side of the doubt that is freest from hazard ☞ here then damnation is at least the seeming hazard of resistance therefore except upon as clear evidence you prove the danger of absolute submission to be of the same nature that it may ballance the other then absolute submission as being the securest is to be followed * P. 41. Obj. But he is the Minister of God to thee for good and if they swerve from this they forsake the end for which they were raised up and so fall from the Power and right to our Obedience Answ It is true the Sovereign is a Minister of God for good so that he corrupts his power grosly when he pursues not that design but in that he is onely accountable to God whose Minister he is c. The same Author continued stedfast to this Doctrine when he left Scotland and came into England * Ser. on Jan. 30. 1674 / 5. p. 7. 9. David when Saul was most unjustly hunting his life would not stretch forth his hand against him seeing he was the anointed of the Lord from Almighty God the King had his Power and to him he knew he was to give an account of his Administration Affirming that the Enemies of that Royal Martyr P. 38. by Oaths and Counter-Oaths which they often took had their Consciences so seared as to be past feeling till they threw off all sense of God and Religion and set up professedly
higher or sunk lower as the day proved clear or cloudy is to bring an unjust Scandal on the Church and her most illustrious Champions Men of great Probity and Wisdom as the greatest Hypocrites and Time-servers in the World who sacrificed their Consciences to their Desires of growing rich and powerful while had the Times been contrary to them they would have owned other Principles This Imputation I shall wipe off and shew that even in the worst of times in the Marian Persecution this Doctrine was publickly own'd and asserted when contrary to the Laws of Nature and Humanity and the Rules of Christian Equity the Protestants were most cruelly harras'd 'T is true the Devil said to God of Job Turn thy hand against him and he will curse thee to thy face but it was the Devil that said it and he was a Lyar from the beginning and so it proved in the Case of Job for when God altered his Methods and treated the good Man as if he had been his Enemy Job was always the same perfect and upright one that feared God and eschewed evil In this Catalogue I purposely omit Bishop Manwaring and Sibthorp in the Reign of CHARLES I. and Bish Parker Cartwright c. in the Reign of JAMES II. because their Authorities were in their own times excepted against as of Men that did not write soberly on the Subject resolving for the most part to appeal to the Writings of such Men who have been and are esteemed the unquestionable true and orthodox Defenders of the Protestant Religion against her Romish Adversaries and if such Authorities will not encline and the Reasons of such eminent Authors perswade the Reader to be of my Opinion I shall only say I am sorry that I have lost my labor THE AUTHORS THE Articles Page 3 Injunctions and Canons Page 4 The Homilies Page 7 The Liturgy Page 10 The Orders of Bishops Page 12 University Censures Page 13 The Institution of a Christan Man Page 19 Bishops Tonstal Stokesly and Bonner Page 20 Tyndal the Martyr ibid. Bishop Latimer Page 21 Arch-Bishop Cranmer ibid. Sir John Cheek Page 22 Martyrs and Confessors in Queen Marys Reign Page 23 Arch-Bishop Sandys Page 26 Bishop Jewel ibid. Bishop Bison Page 27 Mr. Perkins Page 29 Mr. Hooker ibid. Arch-Bishop Bancroft Page 30 Adrian Saravia ibid. King James I. Page 32 Bishop Buckeridge Page 33 Mr. Tho. Cartwright ibid. Arch-Bishop Whitgift Page 34 Dr. Fulke ibid. Bishop Carlton Page 34 Bishop Andrews Page 35 Bishop King ibid. Dr. Jackson Page 36 Dr. Hakewil Page 37 Dr. Bois Page 38 Dr. Donne Page 40 Arch-Bishop of Spalata Page 41 Arch-Bishop Montagu Page 42 Bishop Lake ibid. Mr. Dod Page 43 Bishop Hall ibid. Bishop Davenant Page 47 Arch-Bishop Usher Page 48 Arch-Bishop Bramhal Page 50 Bishop Brownrig Page 52 King Charles I. Page 53 Dr. Hammond ibid. Bishop Ferne Page 54 Mr. Chillingworth Page 55 Dudley Diggs ibid. Sir Edw. Coke Page 58 Dr. Gerhard Longbaine ibid. Ric. Overton Page 59 Bishop Saunderson Page 60 Dr. Bernard Page 63 Mr. Symmons Page 64 Bishop Taylor Page 65 Bishop Kenn Page 66 Dr. Seth Ward B. of Sarum ib. Dr. Lamplu Bishop of Exon Page 70 Bishop Hacket Page 71 Dr. Sharp Page 72 Bishop of Lincoln ibid. Dr. Burnet Page 73 Bishop of S. Asaph Page 78 Dr. Sprat B. of Rochester ib. Mr. Thorndyke Page 79 Dr. Spencer Dean of Ely ib. Dr. Tillotson Page 80 Dr. Stillingfleet Page 81 Dr. Patrick Page 84 Dr. Towerson Page 86 Mr. Scrivener Page 88 Mr. Glanvil Page 91 Dr. Horneck Page 93 Dr. Tennison ib. Dr. Hooper Page 94 Dr. Hascard Page 95 Dr. Falkner ib. Dr. Hicks Page 97 Dr. South ib. Dr. John Moor Page 98 Jeremiah in Baca or a Fast-days Work c. Page 99 Mr. Wake Page 100 Dr. Beveridge Page 102 Dr. Ironside ib. Dr. Isaac Barrow Page 103 Dr. Cave ib. Dr. Dove Page 104 D. Puller ib. Dr. Scott Page 105 University Address presented by Dr. Gower Page 108 Dr. Grove Page 109 Mr. Hesketh Page 110 Dr. Freeman Page 111 Dr. Littleton Page 112 Dr. Morrice ib. Dr. Lake ib. Mr. Lynford Page 113 Mr. Long Page 115 Dr. Fowler Page 116 The Faith and Practice of a Church of England Man Page 117 Mr. Payn Page 118 J. Kettlewell Page 119 Mr. Belling Page 121 Dr. Calamy Page 122 The whole Duty of Man Page 125 Erasmus ib. Grotius Page 126 Beza ib. Luther ib. Calvin ib. Camero Page 127 Is Casaubon ib. Peter du Moulin Page 128 Mons Bochart Page 129 David Blondel ib. Sam. Petit Page 130 Mons Allix ib. Dr. Bourdieu ib. Le droit Souverain c. ib. THE HISTORY OF Passive Obedience Since the REFORMATION INTRODUCTION WHen Judicious Men undertake to determine what are the Doctrines of any Church they do not guide themselves by the Practices nor the Writings of some of her Members but by the Positions which she hath publickly owned and asserted and the Practices that are consonant thereunto this being agreeable to the Counsel of our holy Saviour who when he bids us * Mat. 7.15 16. To beware of false Prophets who came in Sheeps Cloathing but inwardly are ravening Wolves cautions us that we shall know them by their fruits i.e. Not by the Fruits of their Lives but of their Doctrines So does †Serm. Bishop Sanderson interpret the Words and so also does the Dean ‖ Serm. on Nov. 5.1673 p. 28 29. of S. Paul 's We think it most convenient to follow our Saviour's Rules to judge of Mens Pretences how great and haughty soever by the Fruits they produce which Rule is not to be understood concerning the particular Actions of Men which have no respect to their Doctrines for as S. Chrysostom observes many Hereticks have been Men of excellent Lives ' and so on the contrary but we are to understand it of those Fruits which their Doctrines have a direct influence upon and therefore the Rule hath a particular respect to two things by which we are to examine the fairest Pretences 1. The Design they end to 2. The Means made use of for the accomplishing this Design If therefore the Design be quite of another Nature from that of the Gospel if the means be such as are directly contrary to it we may from thence justly infer that how plausible soever the pretences are how fine and soft soever the Sheeps cloathing be that inwardly they are ravening wolves Thus that great Man determines it against the Jesuits in the very case of resisting excommunicating deposing and murdering Princes and so do we all judge concerning the Church of Rome many of her Members are doubtless loyal and peaceable but their Church teaches them otherwise in the famous Lateran Council * M. Payn 's Sermon Sept. 9.1683 pag. 20. Treason in Papists is like original sin to mankind they all have it in their Natures tho many may deny it or not know it But in Protestants it is like the Italian Distemper it was
declared at the least four times in the year That the King's Majesties Power Authority and Preheminence within his Realms and Dominions is the highest Power under God Here the Injunction plainly distinguishes the claim of the Pope from other claims implying that our Church always believed that her Prince's Power was derived immediately from God and that they were superior to all their Subjects either singly or collectively and so were not accountable to them but only to God and among Bishop Ridley's Articles of Visitation An. 1550. one is Whether any do preach or defend that private persons may make Insurrection stir Sedition or compel Men to give them their Goods Anno 1564. being the seventh Year of Queen Elizabeth in the ‖ Sparr Collect. p. 123. Articles for Preaching it is injoyn'd That the Minister move all People to Obedience as well in observation of the Orders appointed in the Book of Common Service as in the Queen's Majesty's Injunctions as also of all other civil Duties due for Subjects to do and that all Preachers Preaching Matters tending to Dissention c. shall be complained At last the Injunctions were called Canons and the first Canon An. 1603. in the first Year of King James is the same in substance with the Injunction of Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth and Queen Elizabeth and for this reason Can. 55. it is ordained That every Minister should before his Sermon acknowledge the King to be in all Causes and over all Persons supreme Head and Governor in more express terms than were formerly used But particularly I look upon the Canons of the Year 1640. to be a full Explanation of the belief of our Church in this point Now Can. 1. injoyns all former Laws Ordinances and Constitutions formerly made for the acknowledgment and profession of the most lawful and independent Authority of our dread Sovereign Lord the King 's most excellent Majesty to be carefully observed and then descends to give an Explanation of the Royal Power and Authority That the most sacred Order of Kings is of divine Right being the Ordinance of God himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly establish'd by express Texts both of the Old and New Testament and for any Person or Persons to set up maintain or allow in any their said Realms or Territories respectively under any pretence whatsoever any independent coactive Power either Papal or Popular whether directly or indirectly is to undermine their great Royal Office and cunningly to overthrow that most Sacred Offfice which God himself hath establish'd and so is treasonable against God as well as against the King. For Subjects to bear Arms against their Kings See the Doctrine of these Canons vindicated in Dr. Puller's Moderat of the Ch. of Engl. c. 12. §. 6. p. 34. offensive or defensive upon any Pretence whatsoever is at least to resist the Powers which are ordained of God and though they do not invade but only resist St. Paul tells them plainly They shall receive to themselves Damnation while in the next Paragraph they shew that this Doctrine does not intitle the King to every Man's Estate But against the Synod that made these Canons lies a great Objection tho I should have thought that the hard Censures of it might have been spar'd because no Synod of our Church and perhaps none of any other Protestant Church hath so expresly condemn'd Popery and Socinianism the great Enemies of true Reformed Christianity as this Synod hath done ‖ V. Art. 3.4 that it was not a Lawful Synod because it was continued and sat after the Parliament was Dissolved and was by another Parliament Condemn'd not to answer that that very Parliament that first Condemn'd this Synod ruin'd even the Monarchy it self nor that the Synods of old Provincial or General were not dependent on the meeting of the States at the same time I answer First that these Canons were made and confirm'd in full Convocation of both Provinces of Canterbury and York and the making of Canons being a work properly Ecclesiastical these Canons were made by the Representatives of the whole Clergy of this Kingdom 2. The Canons were confirm'd by the King which was all that was of old required in such Cases and tho the Convocation sat after the Dissolution of the Parliament yet 1. This is not without President even in the happy Days of Queen Elizabeth not to look back into Henry VIII or the primitive Times And 2. the Persons who condemn'd this Synod are well known to have done it to justifie their own Proceedings being resolved to ruine Episcopacy and with it the Monarchy and afterward by their own power they called an Assembly of Divines and What a Confession of Faith what Discipline Rites and Methods did they Establish a Directory among other things out of which they left the Lord's Prayer perhaps because it 't was a Form the Apostles Creed because themselves thought they could make a better and the Ten Commandments because the fifth plainly accused them of Rebellion against their Lawful Prince And it is worth the observing that Sr. Edward Deering's Speeches that were spoken with so much Virulence against this Synod and afterwards Printed were by the Order of the same House who first applauded them decreed to be Burnt by the hand of the Common Hang-man And if it be still objected that the Canons were Reprobated since the Restitution of Charles II. I say that I quote them not as a Law that obliges the Church but as the known Sense of the Church of England at that time CHAP. III. The Doctrine of the Homilies THough the name of Homily hath been look'd upon and censured by unthinking People as ridiculous yet those admirable Sermons made by our first Reformers as a body of practical Divinity and a Confutation of the Errors and Idolatries of the Church of Rome are as Bishop Ridley said of the first Tome of them * Apud Fox To. 3. p. 506. Holy and wholsome Homilies Recommendations of the principal Virtues which are commended in Scripture and against the most pernicious and capital Vices that so alas do reign in this Realm of England These we subscribe to as containing wholsome Doctrine †Dr. Stanley's Faith and Pract. c. 7. p. 192. and every Man hereby sees what Opinions the Clergy are of for they subscribe and assent to the Book of Articles and Homilies and to the Book of Common Prayer Many also have some regard to the Articles of An 1640. They take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test c. and Johnson says That the Book of Homilies is the best Book in the World next the Bible And since a ‖ D. Welw Letter to M. March p. 10. late Author is so bold to say that Passive Obedience in the narrow sense we take it in was not so much as thought on at the time of the publishing the Homilies I must first ask him How he came to be so
‡ P. 201 202. We are not satified in being obliged to preserve the King's person and Authority in the preservation and defence of the true Religion and the Liberties of the Kingdom forasmuch as 1. No such limitation of our Duty in that behalf is to be found either in the Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance which no Papist would refuse to take with such a Limitation nor in the Protestation nor in the Word of God. 3. Such a Limitation leaves the Duty of the Subject at so much loosness and the safety of the King at so great uncertainty ☞ that whensoever the People shall have a mind to withdraw their Obedience they cannot want a pretence from the same for so doing 4. Hereby we make our selves guilty of an actual and real diminution of his Majesties Power and Greatness which in the same Breath we call the World to witness with our Consciences that we had no thought to diminish c. P. 210 211. The Tyranny and Yoke of Antichrist if laid upon the Necks of Subjects by their lawful Sovereigns ☜ is to be thrown off by Christian Boldness in confessing the truth and patient suffering for it not by taking up Arms or violent resisting the higher Powers Pag. 217 Because some have inferred from the very Order that the Defence of the King's Person and Authority ought to be with subordination to the preservation of the Rights and Privileges of Parliaments and the Liberties of the Kingdom therefore we cannot take this Oath Especially being told in a late Pamphlet P. 219. that the King not having preserved the Liberties of the Kingdom c. as of duty he ought is thereby become a Tyrant and so ceaseth to be a King and consequently that his Subjects cease to be Subjects and ow him no longer Subjection which Assertion since we heartily detest as false and scandalous in the Supposition and in the Inference seditious and devilish we dare not by subscribing this Article give the least countenance thereto And that we may take the Covenant in our own sense is contrary to the nature and end of an Oath which must be full of simplicity P. 223. contrary to the end of Speech c. and will bring a scandal upon our Religion that we practise that our selves that we condemn in the Paqists viz. Swearing with Jesuitical Equivocations and mental Reservations that we play fast and loose with God in as much as what we swear to day in one sense we may swear the direct contrary to morrow in another P. 225. And if this would fatisfie the Conscience we might with a good Conscience not only take the Covenant but even subscribe to the Council of Trent also yea and to the Turkish Alcoran P. 229. if the King should not protect us but neglect his part too having power and ability to perform it his voluntary neglect ought not to free us from the faithful performance of what is to be done on our part Ann. 1683. July 21. in a full Convocation many opinions were condemn'd that had been publish'd in diverse Books and writings in English and also in the Latin tongue P. 2. repugnant to the holy Scriptures decrees of Councils writings of the Fathers the Faith and profession of the Primitive Church and also destructive of the Kingly Government the safety of his Majesties Person the publick Peace the Laws of Nature and Bonds of Humane Society as Proposition 1. All civil Authority is derived originally from the People Proposition 2. There is a mutual compact tacit or express between a Prince and his Subjects and if he perform not his Duty they are discharged from theirs Proposition 3. P. 3. that if Lawful Governours become Tyrants or Govern otherwise than by the Laws of God and Man they ought to do they forfeit the Right they had unto their Government Prop. 7. Self-preservation is the Fundamental Law of Nature and supersedes the Obligation of all others when they stand in competition with it Prop. 8. The Doctrine of the Gospel concerning patient suffering of Injuries is not inconsistent with violent resisting of the higher Powers in case of Persecution for Religion Pr. 9. P. 4. There lies no obligation upon Christians to Passive Obedience when the Prince commands any thing against the Laws of our Country and the Primitive Christians chose rather to die than to resist because Christianity was not yet settled by the Laws of the Empire And besides the Condemnation of the Doctrines the Books of Milton P. 7. Baxter Goodwin Owen Johnson c. were ordered to be publickly burnt by the Hand of the Marshal in the Court of the Schools as Books that were fitted to deprave Mens Manners stir up Seditions and Tumults overthrow States and Kingdoms and lead to Rebellion Murther of Princes and Atheism it self And a Prohibition issued forbidding the Reading any of the said Books under great Penalties This Decree was drawn up by Dr. Jane Dean of Glocester and the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxon and subscribed by the Vicechancellor other Professors and the whole Convocation And pursuant to this Decree Parkinson a Fellow of Lincoln-College for maintaining that the Right and Foundation of all Power was in the People that Kings are accountable for their Maleadministration c. And particularly that King Charles the First was justly put to death for making War upon his Subjects was an 1684. expelled the University And it is observable that our excellent Homilies that so expresly require Obedience to Princes and condemn Rebellion and Resistance upon any pretence whatsoever were Printed at the Theatre the same year that the abovementioned Decree was made CHAP. VII The Opinions of Learned Men. WHen Men would know what are the Sentiments of any Church in her Articles or Sanctions the most rational Course is to make inquiry among those who were concern'd in making them or those who may be presumed best to understand them by reason of their nearness to the time their acquaintance with the Compilers or their extraordinary Sagacity and Honesty and of suchpersons in the Church of England must we make Inquiry concerning the Doctrine of Obedience and Non-resistance In * Burn. hist Ref. part 1. l. 3. p. 245. the Days of Henry the Eighth when the Reformation began to dawn an 1537. a Convocation was held upon the Conclusion of which there was Printed an Explanation of the chief Points of Religion signed by nineteen Bishops eight Arch-Deacons and seventeen Doctors of Divinity and Law in which there was an Exposition of the Creed the Ten Commandments c But this was but a rude Draught the beauteous Stroaks were given it †Id. p. 286. anno 1540. when a select number of Bishops sate by Virtue of a Commission from the King confirm'd in Parliament among which were Cranmer Ridley Redman and other extraordinary men their first work was to draw up a Declaration of the Christian Doctrine for the
And if it be objected that Wyat's Rebellion happened the same year and that he took Arms upon the Account of Religion I answer 1. Were it so this was the fault of but a few discontented Protestants not the fault of their Religion and Principles but of their Passions 2. Nor did those Discontents take Arms for Religion as the Historian says expresly * Burn. ubi supra p. 269. For when Wyat made his Proclamation at Maidstone he professed that he intended nothing but to preserve the Liberty of the Nation and keep it from coming under the Yoke of Strangers which he said all the Council except one or two were against and assured the People that all the Nobility and chief Men of England would concur with him Now the Generality of the Nation was then Papist the Nobility and Gentry especially and so could not be presumed to take Arms for the Protestant Religion He said nothing of Religion but in private assured those that were for the Reformation that he would declare for them And his Demands †P. 270. have no relation to Religion but to the Command of the Tower and that the Queen should be under his Guard c. The same ‖ Ibid. Historian affirming that the Rebellion was not at all raised upon the pretence of Religion which according to the Printed Account set out by the Queen's Order was not so much as once named and that Poynet Bishop of Winchester was not in it P. 171. c. and that Christopherson's Book on this Subject was but a Flourish of his Wit and no decisive proof And I cannot learn but that Wyat as well as Dudley died a Papist 'T is true some of his Adherents pretended Religion as there are and will be wicked Men of all Persuasions but they did but pretend Religion as Mr. Bradford one of the Writers of the aforementioned Letter said of them in his Exhortation to the Professors of the Gospel in England but ☜ as he adds they were Hypocrites and under the Cloak of the Gospel would have debarred the Queen's Highness of her Right but God would not so cloak them This therefore was the Sentiment of our Confessors at home during the Reign of Queen Mary and I doubt not but it was the Sense of their Brethren the Confessors abroad as I shall make it appear from the Writings of the Bishops Jewel and Sandys whatever the Author of the History of the Troubles at Francfort says to the contrary who was well known to be a party and for that reason not fit to give such evidence * P. 195. as he does that the greatest Traitors and Rebels King Edward had in the West Parts were Priests and such as had subscribed to the Book or whatsoever by Law was then in force But in all the Stirs which have happened either since the Queen's Majesty came to the Crown or before I have not heard of so much as one Minister or other that hath lifted up his hand against her Majesty or State whom it pleaseth the malicious Man to term Precisian and Puritan Traitor and Rebel While this Author hath forgot what before he recorded * Pag. 44 45. That Knox their Patriarch was banished from Francfort for High Treason against the Emperor of Germany And not long after the History was written Hacket and his Companions would have convinced him that the Men of his Party can be Rebels SECT IV. Under Queen Elisabeth the Truth broke from behind the Cloud and shone triumphantly and as Truth is always the same so it appeared in this particular Doctrine Archbishop Sandys was one of the Confessors of that Age and from him we learn †Serm. 3. p. 51. That if we despise Government and speak evil of them that be in Authority if we mutter and murmur against the Principality of Moses and Aaron if we loath the present State and seek after Alterations then shall the Blessings of God turn into Cursings ‖ Id. Ser. 4. p. 67. As we should pray for all Men so chiefly for Kings and undoubtedly it is unlawful to rebel against those whom we are bound to pray for In Paul 's time the Kings and Rulers of the People were Ethnicks Tyrants Enemies to Christ and cruel Persecutors of the Gospel whereupon some thought it not convenient for the Church to pray for them who sought to destroy it S. Paul abateth this Opinion teaching them that they should chiefly pray for such as for Men in greatest danger and most needing the help of their Prayers pray for him that prayeth not for himself We must pray for ill Princes because the King's Heart is in God's Hand that he may turn their minds and stay their Persecutions c. to pour out Supplications Pag. 68. that God would grant them a long life a safe Government a sure dwelling Tertull. valiant Soldiers faithful Counsellors a good People and a quiet world and whatsoever the Hearts of Men or Kings do desire and I am sure such a Prayer is not reconcileable with resistance and let all such as will not say Amen to this Prayer assure themselves that they are neither dutiful Christians nor faithful Subjects Thus also speaks Bishop Jewel * Def. of the Apol p. 15. We teach the People as S. Paul doth to be subject to the highest Powers not only for fear but also for conscience we teach them that whosoever striketh with the Sword by private Authority shall perish with the Sword if the Prince happen to be wicked or cruel or burthensome we teach them to say with S. Ambrose Tears and Prayers be our Weapons ☜ Anno 1586. Bishop Bilson Printed his Book of the true difference between Christian Subjection and unchristian Rebellion And therein says * P. 260. Deliverance if you would have obtain it by prayer and expect it in peace P. 262. these be Weapons for Christians the Subject hath no refuge against his Sovereign but only to God by prayer and patience Christ fore-teaching his Disciples P. 256. that they should be brought before Kings and Rulers and put to death and hated of all Men for his Names sake addeth not as you would have it he that first rebels but he that endureth to the end shall be saved P. 278. Your Spanish Inquisitions and French Massacres are able to set grave and good Men at their wits end and to make them justly doubt since you refuse the course of all divine and human Laws with them whether by the Law of Nature they may not defend themselves from such barbarous Blood-suckers if the Laws of the Land where they do converse do permit them c. This last Quotation I have transcribed that I might answer the Authority which some Men use to prove that it is lawful in some Cases for Subjects to resist For were this true yet 1. This is but one Doctor 's Opinion contrary to the Doctrine of the Church and
unto the Papists who mutatis mutandis could apply their own arguments against Princes of the Religion ‖ p. 7◠In that Book it is asserted that if Kings observe not those compacts to which they were Sworn Subordinate Magistrates have powet to oppose them and to punish them till all things be restored to their former State that what Power a General Council hath to Depose a Pope for Haeresie the same the People over Kings that are turn'd Tyrants And it is worth the notice that King James when the Prince Palatine his son in law had axcepted of the Crown of Bohemia did not only dissuade him from * Rushus Collect. p. 12. it it being an usurpation upon the Rights of the Emperor but disavowed the Act and would never style him himself by that Title nor suffer his Chaplains so to do And the defeat of that unhappy Prince near Prague is very remarkable it happening on Sunday Novemb. 8. Anno 1620. when part of the Gospel for the Day was Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's SECT VI. Under a learned King the Arts flourish and therefore many eminent Authorities appear in this Reign to the vindication of the truth Dr. Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester in his Sermon on Rom. 13.5 before the King Sept. 23.1606 says ‖ p. 16. there is no resistance either thou must obey good Princes willingly or endure evil Tyrants patiently †p. 3. If they command any thing against God their Authority comes too short in such cases it is better to obey God than Men and yet in these things tho we may not obey yet we may not resist but suffer * p. 13. Subjection to higher Powers is necessary in Christians Necessitate praecepti Finis by the necessity of the end Peace and Tranquillity and Religion in this Life and Life Everlasting after Death And by necessity of the Precept Honor thy Father and Mother in which number all Kings and Fathers of Countries and Princes must have the Honor of Reverence to their Persons of obedience to their Laws of patience to their Punishments of maintenance to their Estates and of fidelity to their Crowns thus saith Arch-Bishop Laud's Tutor for so was Bishop Buckeridge Tho. Cartwright also notwithstanding his other heterodox Opinions and Practcies seems in this to be Orthodox * Confut. of the Rhem. Test in Rom. 13.4 p. 968. V. p. 58. V. Arch-Bishop Bramhal We praise God that our sworn Enemies are constrained to give us the testimony of sound Doctrine in all duties toward Princes both good and bad Fathers and Tyrants for our practice accordingly we are content to rest in equal and indifferent judgment this one thing we may boldly say that we seek not to betray our native Princes nor to lie in wait for their Lives as the Jesuits most wickedly and unnaturally do These were Mr. Cartwright's cool thoughts in his old age whatever his former Sentiments might have been Arch-bishop Whitgift also herein agrees with T. C. for when he says * Def. of the Admonit p. 4. Ibid. Indeed the Doctrine of the Gospel ' which is the Doctrine of Salvation hath been is and will be a friend to Princes and Magistrates yea tho they persecute the same T.C. re-joins If it be ask'd of the Obedience due unto the Prince and unto the Magistrate it answereth that all obedience in the Lord is to be rendred and if it come to pass that any other be asked it so refuseth that it disobeyeth not in preferring obedience to the great God before that which is to be given to mortal man. It so resisteth that it submitteth the body and goods of those that profess it to abide that which God will have them suffer in that case And to this the Arch-bishop subjoins All this is truly spoken of the Doctrine of the Gospel Dr. Fulke * In 1 Pet. 2.18 on the Rhemish Testament It is a lewd Slander against Wicklif that Magistrates lost their Authority if once they were in deadly sin he obeyed and taught obedience to the Kings Edw. III. and Rich. II. in whose time he lived which two Princes all men know to have committed deadly sin yea some heinous and notorious sins So it is a detestable slander against us whom you call followers of Wicklif for none of us ever held or taught any such Seditious or traiterous Opinions but your Heresie commeth nearest to this Opinion which holdeth that the Pope hath Authority to depose lawful Kings from their Thrones at his pleasure c. Anno 1610. Bishop Carlton printed his Book of the Jurisdiction of Princes wherein he affirms * Ch. 1. p. 4. That in external coactive jurisdiction the King hath Supreme Authority in all Causes and over all Persons Ecclesiastical as well as Civil and that this is that that hath been publish'd by divers Writings and Ordinances * P. 12. Ch. 2. Some of the Pope's Flatterers of late as also others to open a wide gap to Rebellion have written That the power of Government by the Law of Nature is in the multitude but the first Government was in a Family it is absurd to think and impossible to prove that the power of Government was in the Multitude and what is a King by nature but a Father of a great Family SECT VII I am now enter'd into a vast Ocean where Writers are every where to be found and I resolve to examine them as they occur without adjusting with a too curious niceness the exact Chronology * Ser. 1. on Gowrey's Conspir p. 781. And I begin with Bishop Andrews the smartest Adversary that ever the great Card. Bellarmine met with A King is Al Rum no rising against him or if any man rise they had better sit still for Kings begin from God we cannot set our selves against them saith Gamaliel but we must be found to fight against God being ordain'd of God saith S. Paul Gamaliel's Scholar to resist them is to resist the Ordinance of God none might better say it than he it was told him from Heaven when he was about such another business persecuting Christ in his Church * Ser. 2. p. 791. and having quoted the example of David toward Saul he adds I verily think God in this first Example of his first King over his own people hath purposely suffer'd them all i.e. all the faults of Governours to fall out and to be found in him even all that should fall out in any King after him 1. His Government was tyrannical 2. He usurp'd a Power in things spiritual taking upon him to sacrifice in person 3. He dip'd his hands in the bloud of God's Priests 4. Was possess'd by God with an evil spirit a case beyond all other cases and yet destroy him not Abishai * Ser. 3. on the 5. August p. 800. Kings are God's Anointed to the superseding of two Claims meos saith the Pope another Claim hath of late begun to
this Kingdom You must take all this upon trust without any express and particular warrant to rule and secure your Conscience against the express Words of the Apostle forbidding Resistance Rom. xiii * §. 3. 4. and then disproves that Tenet That Power is originally in and from the People and that if a Prince discharge not his Trust the Power devolves again upon the People †§. 5. shewing that most of their Weapons for Resistance were sharpned at the Philistines Forge their Arguments being borrowed from the Roman Schools and ‖ § 6. doth Religion stand in need of a Defence which it self condemns and which would be a perpetual Scandal to it But should I transcribe all that is to the purpose I should offer to the Reader the whole Book to which I must refer as I also refer him to the excellent Treatise of the Archbishop of Tuam Maxwell called Sacrosancta Regum Majestas written upon this very Subject Chillingworth Religion of Protestants a safe way c. p. 360. If I follow the Scripture I may nay I must obey my Sovereign in lawful things though an Heretick though a Tyrant and though I do not say the Pope but the Apostles themselves nay an Angel from Heaven should teach any thing against the Gospel of Christ I may nay I must denounce Anathema to him SECT XVI I might also only name Dudley Diggs's Book of the Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereign in what case soever but then I should do wrong to my Subject and the Truth * Pag. 2. In the Service of which the Author shews That that one main Principle by which the seduced Multitude hath been tempted to catch at empty Happiness and thereby have pulled upon themselves Misery and Destruction That every Man being born free the Law of Nature doth justifie any Attempts to shake off those Bonds imposed upon him by Superiors if inconvenient and destructive of native Freedom is false since every Man is not born free all being by Nature subject to paternal Power and consequently to the Supreme Magistrate to whom divine Law confers the several Powers which Fathers resigned up and †p. 7. that those that will allow any Power to Subjects against their Ruler do thereby dissolve the Sinews of Government by which they were compacted into one and which made a Multitude a People for there cannot be two Powers and yet the Kingdom remain one Afterward he proves ‖ p. 13. by what Arts and Persuasives People are moved to Rebellion particularly ‡ p. 30 31. by being brought to believe That we are a mix'd State and that our Kings are accountable c. and then * p. 34 41 42. c. proceeds to prove the Doctrine of Nonresistance from Scripture proving that the same Obedience which God required from the Jews under the Law to be shewn to their Judges and Kings is now required and that Christ enjoyns his Followers under the Gospel as high a degree of Patience towards the higher Powers and that there is great reason that we should perform this duty more chearfully because our Saviour hath commended Persecution to all those that will live godly and that both by Precept and Example Rebellion in Christians being most prodigious The Jews wanted not some Colours of Reason to rebel their Blessings were temporal but a Christian cannot have any shadow of Scruple St. Peter failing in this Duty by resisting the Magistrate in defence of his innocent Master hath taken special care not to be imitated and therefore informs us largely with the full extent of Christian Patience Then ‖ p. 45. c. he makes an excellent Comment on St. Paul's Words Let every Soul be subject c. Here is a fair warning take heed what you do you have a terrible Enemy to encounter with it is a Fight against God you cannot flatter your selves with a prosperous issue for those that resist shall receive to themselves Damnation You have God's Word for it you are damn'd if you resist This same Year came out a Pamphlet called The late Covenant asserted printed on the day of Trouble Rebuke and Blasphemies for Thomas Underhil Ann. 1643. undertaking to prove That there is a sweet Agreement between the Protestation and Covenant and Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy that the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy did bind to the taking of the Covenant to take up Arms against their Sovereign c. and out of it I shall give an Instance how conscientious those Republican Reformers were and how obliged by Oaths ‡ p. 5. c. We have says he sworn that the King ruling by Law is the Supreme Power and so we have sworn Obedience to him we abjure any foreign Power we have sworn that neither Pope nor Cardinal nor the most Catholick King nor the most Christian shall over-rule our King and Kingdom if we can help it we have sworn and we do not repent ☜ for in pursuance of this Oath to repel foreign Power we are in Arms at this day To whom have we sworn Allegiance but to God and the King in reference to him We have sworn and will not repent to obey the King ☜ while he obeys God ruling his People by his Law and Book We have not sworn our selves Servants to Men their private Wills their Lusts c. and we will maintain the King the higher Power with our Lives and Fortunes We will obey all his lawful not personal Commands Look into these Oaths ☜ and you shall not there find a Word soberly understood contradicting the Covenant God forbid that we should vow our selves Servants to Men and Rebels to God. The Queen and the King are notoriously faulty touching both these Oaths the one doing her utmost to bring in and establish a foreign Power the other denying Allegiance to the most supreme Qu. But where have you any warrant to take up Arms against the King Answ We will never allow those Words against the King they are taken up for the King and for the defence of all that should be dearest to him but let it go against the King we have warrant for it when he bends all his force all his might sets open the Gates of Hell against the Parliament against Religion against our Laws c. we vow and covenant to take Arms against King Queen both setting themselves against God and the power of Godliness and we have as good Warrant as can be desired for so doing ‖ p. 19. Obj. But I cannot think it a lawful Vow for we vow to fight against our lawful Prince Answ It is not against him but for him to deliver his sacred Person out of the hands of Murtherers our Land from out of the hand of Spoilers and the Laws of God and Men from Sons of Belial who would make all void null and of none effect Obj. But we have taken the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy
☜ and bear all the ill administration that might be in the Government but never to rise in Arms upon that account * Id. third Letter to the E. of Middl. p. 168. I will do that which I think fit for me to do to day though I were sure to be assassinated for it to morrow but to the last moment of my life I will pay all duty and fidelity to his Majesty * Ans to the New Test c. p. 48 49. The Church of England may justly expostulate when she is treated as seditious after she hath rendred the highest Services to the Civil Authority that any Church now on Earth hath done she hath beaten down all the principles of Rebellion with more force and learning ☜ than any body of Men hath ever yet done and hath run the hazards of enraging her Enemies and losing her Friends even for those from whom the most learned of her Members knew what they might expect We are the only Church in the World that carries these principles to the highest We acknowledg that some of our Clergy miscarried in it upon King Edward's death yet at the same time others of our Communion adhered more steadily to their Loyalty in favour of Queen Mary than she did to the promises that she made to them The Laws of Nature are perpetual P. 51. and can never be cancell'd by any special Law so that if these Gent. own so freely that this is a Law of Nature that every individual might fight in his own defence they had best take care not to provoke Nature too much P. 52. As we cannot be charg'd for having preach'd any seditious Doctrine so we are not wanting in the preaching of the duties of Loyalty P. 55. even when we see what they are like to cost us Of all the Maximes in the World there is none hurtful to the Government in our present circumstances than the saying That the King's promises and the people's fidelity ought to be reciprocal and that a failure in the one cuts off the other for by a very natural consequence the Subject may likewise say that their Oaths of Allegiance being founded on the assurance of his Majesty's protection the one binds no longer than the other is observed and the Inferences that may be drawn from hence will be very terrible if the Loyalty of the so much decryed Church of England does not put a stop to them But for that we may cite the Testimony of the Right Reverend Bishop of S. Asaph in his Seasonable Discourse c. We are Members of a Church Pag. 4. which above all other Constitutions in the Christian World enforces the great Duties of Obedience and Submission to the Magistrate and teaches to be subject not only for Truth but Conscience sake And among other Motives which he mentions in the behalf of the Established Religion The fourth says he is this The Safety of the King's Person and the Prerogative of the Crown which hath no higher or more necessary Appendent than his Supremacy in his Dominion in all Causes Ecclesiastical and Secular according to the Powers invested in the Jewish Kings under the Law ☞ and exercised by the first Christian Emperors To whom we may add the Right Reverend Doctor Sprat in his Sermon before the House of Commons Jan. 30. 1677 / 8. by them ordered to be Printed Where speaking of King Chalres the Martyr Who saith he not only by his Birth had a Successive Right to the Crown which he could not forfeit but also by his Personal Vittues might have deserved another Title to it if his Crown had been elective and as his Murderers impudently pretended at the Disposal of his Subjects pag. 3. So that he terms him the Vicegerent of God's Power ibid. pag. 44. He pleaded and prayed for his Enemies at the Bar of Heaven which only was above him And pag. 47. May all of us be most industriously watchful that the same Schismatical Designs and Antimonarchical Principles which then inspired so many ill Men misled some good Men and cost our good King so dear may not once more revive and insinuate themselves again under the same or newer and craftier Disguises and find an opportunity to attempt the like mischiefs And in another Sermon of his at White-Hall Pag. 44 45. December 22. 1678. Let us withdraw our thoughts and lift up our minds to the imitation of the most Christian Examples As of our Saviour himself so of his Apostles and Disciples in the first and therefore the best Ages How were they zealous for the Glory of God Not by violence or malice or revenge against any not eve nagainst their Oppressors but only by their own Labors and Prayers and Patience and Magnanimity in suffering How were they zealous in respect to their Temporal Governors Not to resist for conscience sake but rather to be subject for that very reason not by open Rebellion not by private Machinations but in blessing and serving and submitting to their Emperors tho they were Idolaters and obeying them in all things except their Idolatry Whom to imitate is our Duty SECT XXIII Mr. Thorndyke * Apud Falkner's Christian Loyalty p. 429. from the Instance of the Maccabees avers that it was lawful for Subjects to take Arms in Defence of their Religion under the Jewish State tho in that he be mistaken but expresly condemns taking Arms upon that or any other pretext under the Christian State. Dr. Spencer †Serm. at S. Mary's Cambr. Jun. 28. 1660 p. 4. the now Dean of Ely The Gospel doth very sparingly meddle with State matters but when it doth it engageth to Obedience by as obliging Principles as it doth to Religion even a Principle of Conscience we must be subject for conscience-sake not barely for safety's sake and a principle of highest fear They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation A Doctrine taught the World in the Type long before by that Fire and Earthquake which destroyed the Opposers of lawful Authority Numb xvi 33 34. P. 11 12. God hath attested unto Sovereignty by suffering none of his Servants in Scripture few or none in story to be guilty of willful opposing lawful Authority We find many a wicked Man guilty of this Sin but as Reverence to other Divine Commands wore off in time as the power that exalteth it self above all that is called God obtained in the world so to this among the rest of Obedience to lawful Authority P. 14. The Heathens used to reproach the Gospel on this account but the Pulpit was never intended to be a Circle in which to raise up the evil Spirits of Sedition and State-Commotions no Religion in the Doctrine of it so greatly secures the Power of Kings and the Peace of States ☜ as the Christian doth we are bound by the Gospel to be obedient 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. ii 18. to the crookedest and frowardest Masters
God sets over us So that Religion can never be pretended against Loyalty and therefore when I take a sad review of the Evil of our late Disturbances It ake not so much notice of the Loss of King Liberty Property Parliaments Blood tho very great as of impairing so far the Credit of Religion in the Violences offered to the person of his Sacred Majesty and that by persons so highly pretending to it I am sorry the Papists seem to have now a thirtieth of January Pag. 18. to return us for a fifth of November Christianity disowns all consecrated Daggers in Heathen Writers indeed nothing of more familiar occurrence than Panegyricks in commendation of the Assertors of publick Liberty by the assassinating of a Tyrant a thing easily pardonable in them being able by the dim Light of Nature to discover no more in a King than a Head of Gold supported by the Clayie Toes of popular Election and Acceptance but Scripture shews a higher Charter than so Pag. 19. by which Kings hold their Crowns Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reign c. the taking Arms to redress some Evils in the Government of a Nation proves generally but as the cutting off of the Hand to get rid of a cut Finger Pag. 23. It is a Truth of everlasting Faithfulness That can never be brought about safely by bad means which could not be by good SECT XXIV Dr. Tillotson Dean of Canterbury * Letter to the Lord Russel Jun. 20. 1683. In tender compassion of your Lordship's Case and from all the good will that one man can bear to another I do humbly offer to your Lordships deliberate thoughts these following Considerations concerning the Point of Resistance if our Religion and Rights should be invaded ☞ 1. That the Christian Religion doth plainly forbid the resistance of Authority 2. That tho our Religion be established by Law which your Lordship urges as a Difference between our Case and that of the Primitive Christians yet in the same Law which establishes our Religian 14 Car. 2. c. 4. 14 Car. 2. c. 3. it is declared That it is not lawful upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms c. Besides that there is a particular Law declaring the Power of the Militia to be solely in the King and this ties the Hands of Subjects tho the Law of Nature and the general Rules of Scripture had left us at liberty which I believe they do not because the Government and Peace of human Society could not well subsist upon these Terms 3. Your Lordship's Opinion is contrary to the declared Doctrine of all Protestant Churches ☜ and tho some particular persons have taught otherwise that have been contradicted herein and condemn'd for it by the generality of Protestants I beg of your Lordship to consider how it will agree with an avowed asserting of the Protestant Religion to go contrary to the general Doctrine of the Protestants my end in this is to convince your Lordship that you are in a very dangerous and great Mistake and being so convinced that which before was a sin of Ignorance will appear of a much more heinous nature as in truth it is 〈◊〉 calls for a very particular and deep repentance which if your Lordship exercise by a particular acknowledgment of it to God and Man you will not only obtain forgiveness of God but prevent a mighty scandal to the Reformed Religion I am very loth to give your Lordship and disquiet in the distress you are in but am much more concern'd that you do leave the world in a delusion and false peace to the hinderance of your eternal happiness And in his Prayer on the Scaffold with the same Lord he hath this expression Grant O Lord that all we who survive by this and other instances of thy Providence may learn our Duty to God and the King. Dr. Stillingfleet Dean of S. Paul's Serm. on Jan. 30. 166 8 / 9 on Jude 11. p. 2 3. The Christian Religion above all others hath taken care to preserve the Right sof Sovereignty by giving unto Cesar the things that are Cesar's And to make resistance unlawful by declaring that those who are guilty of it shall receive to themselves damnation Of such men we have a description in this short but smart Epistle who believ'd it a part of their Saintship to despise Dominions c. P. 7 8. Whose design like that of Corah was the sharing the Government among themselves which it was impossible for them to hope for as long as Moses continued a King in Jeshurun nor were they awed by the solemn Vows and Promises they had made of Obedience to him for factious men know they must address themselves to the people and in the first place persuade them that they manage their interests against the usurpations of their Governors while the people take a strange pride in hearing and telling all the Faults of their Governors P. 11 12. The common grounds of all Seditions being usurpations upon the Peoples Rights ☜ arbitrary Government and ill management of Affairs as if they had said we appear only in the behalf of the Fundamental Liberties of the People both Civil and Spiritual That Moses was guilty of the Breach of the Trust committed to him so that now by the ill management of his Trust the Power was again devolved into the Hands of the People and they ought to take account of his Actions Pag. 21. Cons p. 22 23 c. There were then two great Principles among them by which they thought to defend themselves 1. That Liberty and a Right to Power is so inherent in the People that it cannot be taken from them 2. That in case of Usurpation upon that Liberty of the People they may resume the Exercise of Power b◠punishing those who are guilty of it And I believe they will be found to be the first Assertors of this kind of Liberty that ever were in the world ☞ and happy had it been for this Nation if Corah had never found any Disciples in it Of the later of the two Propositions Pag. 26 27 28 29. it is said that there can be no Principle imagined more destructive to Civil Societies and repugnant to the very nature of Government for it destroys all the Obligations of Oaths and Compacts it makes the solemnest Bonds of Obedience signifie nothing it makes every prosperous Rebellion just c. and if Corah Dathan and Abiram had succeeded in their Rebellion against Moses no doubt they would have been called the Keepers of the Liberties of ISRAEL The Supposition of this Principle will unavoidably keep up a constant Jealousie between the Prince and his People and there can be no such way to bring in an arbitrary Government into a Nation Besides this must necessarily engage a Nation in endless Disputes about the forfeiture of Power into whose Hands it falls whether into the People in common or some persons
secured by a patient submitting to persecuting Princes it being manifest from thence that Christianity was so far from being destroyed by the Blood of its many Martyrs that on the contrary it thrived and propagated it self by it Pag. 260. From that second Plea pass we to a third which is taken from those Oaths which Kings do commonly make before they are solemnly crowned of governing the People by the Laws the Government as some think seeming thereby to arise from a Compact between them and their Subjects upon the breach whereof on the King's part it may be lawful for the Subject to depart from their Allegiance and resist him in the Execution of his Power For Answer to which not to tell you what intolerable Mischiefs would ensue from such a Tenet as often as any seditious Man should go about to persuade the People they were not so well governed as they ought I will alledge in behalf of our own Princes farther than which we shall not need to look that which will cut the Throat of this Objection to wit That our Kings are to as full purpose such before their Coronation as after witness not only their performing all the Acts of a King but that known Maxim in our Laws that the King of England never dies From whence as it will follow that as the Kings of this Nation owe not their being such to any compact between them and their People that upon any supposed breach thereof it might be lawful for the Subject to resist them so also that the Oaths taken by them at their Coronation are not to procure them that Power which otherwise they could not have but for the encouraging the People to yield the more ready Obedience to them which they may very well do when they who are to govern plight their Faith and Reputation to govern them according to their own Laws Mr. Scrivener Book I. Part I. Of the Original Government p. 93. The Arguments to affirm that the grosser Body of the People did first of all agree upon Government and constitute their Ruler are 1. Ridiculous 2. Sacrilegious and impious 3. Impossible 4. Pestilential and pernicious to all Government 'T is a true Saying It is more to make a King than to be a King. Still I hold-this which I have not found shaken by the many Attempts of innovating Wits That there is a real Paternal Power in lawful Princes For 't is not Choice but Power that makes a King and in this case no power at all is given or can be given nor in truth ought to be taken away as the manner is from Princes entring through the Populacy into the Throne for God only is the proper and immediate Author of Right and Power which he hath inserted into Parents over their Children and hath proportionably prescribed to Kings and Princes without ever advising with the People or expecting their Consent or Confirmation This the Scripture it self calls Jus Imperii or lâ—ss significantly with us The manner of the King 1 Sam. viii 9. Not from the People but from God. Pag. 94. The most therefore that the People do when they act most in creating Kings is under God to apply the Person to the Place or Office of Governing Pag. 95. Grant that all Men were once but no body could ever tell when and in a certain place but no body could ever tell where equally free or at least all of years of Discretion which is most uncertain it would be known first how Men dare to be so presumptuous as to make such a breach of the Law of Nature as this must be viz. To part with their Birth right and to imbezzle that which God had given them concomitantly with their own Lives And this is further confirmed from the impossibility as well as impiety of making any such Translation of Power from its natural Subject the People because it cannot ever fairly or justly be brought about seeing that the People cannot unanimously much less ever did concur to the Election of any one Government or Governor They cannot all give in their Votes to such an end always some were dissenting and if they did not enter their Protest against the proceeding of their Fellows it must be because they were deterred curbed and oppressed by a more prevalent Faction obliging them and constraining them most unjustly to comply with their Opinions and Decrees for there appears no sound reason why a more numerous and powerful Faction may not as well take away my Estate because they are stronger than I as take away my Birth-right which Liberty is here asserted to be So that the very first step to Liberty must be founded in Injustice in taking away that from me which I might no less in natural reason spoil them of and in Servitude too in bringing me whom they acknowledge naturally free into unwilling Subjection Neither is the difficulty solved in saying That Reason and Nature also require that for order sake and regulating humane Society the minor part must yield to the major for upon this Supposition indeed that Power is so absurdly and inconveniently posited there doth presently appear such a necessity but my Argument is taken from the absurdity of any such necessity of Natures creating that the Supposition is very false and if it were true yet were not that Maxim true which is here brought to controul and correct the same for Nature doth not teach us much less necessitate us in any case to follow the most numerous but rather Reason and Experience and the Judgment of diligent and wise Discussers of this Point inform us That the Multitude are more inconsiderate undiscerning and injudicious than the fewer in number many times the World being generally thicker set with Fools than wise Men and Fools being commonly more apt to be led by Fools than with deeper and sounder Reasons of the Wise Pag. 96 97. The Right of Rule in the People is look'd upon as by Nature and Divine Ordinance belonging to them and therefore cannot de jure be transferred or if attempted must needs by the same Right be revocable Finding themselves most commonly destitute of that advantage they proceed to expound it more to their purpose tyrannical and boldly affirm That by the People is not meant necessarily the most but the best and soberest and godliest and such only that study really the Good of Religion and the Liberties of the People And are not these sine Doings Do not these popular Tenets hang well together and end well which in process of their own Reason and Practices confute the very first Principle of all viz. That People have an absolute supream Power to frame Governments when before they can bring matters to their intended conclusion they are forc'd to deny them Of the Obligations between the Governors and Governed p. 103. It cannot either consist with the Law of God or Nations to inflict Punishments on Princes Sovereign Not but that for instance Murder Adultery unjust
welfare and prosperity Rebellion against their Governours they hated as Witchcaft and ever thought it safer to suffer than to resist Hence they paid Tribute without marmuring for their opinion was that no Man could have that Power except it were given him from above His Tyranny could not make them neglect their duty nor his ill Government tempt them to forget their Allegiance Where the Man was rough and hard-hearted that was over them they look'd upon the Providence as a means to try their faith and even then when they might have resisted and conquer'd they would not because they thought it was unsuitable to their Religion SECT XXVI Doctor Tennison says the same * Mr. Hobbs's Creed examin'd p. 149 15 151. This then is the Doctrine of Politicks that Rebellion is not Iniquity if upon probable grounds it becomes prosperous It is blamed as an opinion of Mr. White That part-boil'd Romanist as he is called that a dispossess'd Prince ought neither to be desired nor to endeavour to return if the people think themselves to be well and their Trade and Employment be undisturb'd And he adds Who can answer they shall be better by the return of the dispossess'd party surely in common presumption the gainer is like to defend them better than he who lost it ☜ Certainly for this Sentence publish'd at such a time to this Nation if for any other cause those Books ought to be burnt in England as well as some of them have been burnt at Rome there is no tye so strong as that of Religion p. 158 159. which eternally binds a conscientious Subject in Allegiance to his Sovereign and Wars arise from mens self-interests and lusts and true goodness is both the Creator and preserver of peace unless a Man obeys for Conscience-sake all the Cords of outward Pacts and Covenants will not hold him * V. pref p. 7. c. Neither will such Covenants hold the people that pretend to Religion if they be mis-taught that God is glorified in their private good and that their private good is to be valued before the life of a Prince if they can safely deprive him of it What Hobbs hath written three times over in his de Cive p. 161. de Corpore Politico and his Leviathan ought rather to be esteemed seeds of Sedition than Elements of Government and Society and I am sure among those Principles one is that Government is founded in compact The people p. 167. if they believed that a company of Delinquents joyning together to defend themselves by Arms do not at all unjustly but may lawfully repel lawful force by force they would soon be stirred up and suffer none for whom they have respect to be brought to justice SECT XXVII Thus Doctor Hooper * Serm. at Whitehal on Math. 22.21 p. 11. Is he not the Vicegerent of God Wherever therefore his Sovereign the Almighty hath not prevented him by any precedent Commands there he hath right and liberty to put forth his and in those cases to expect an active chearful Obedience ☞ and that we should in no case and for no reason resist Be this Civil Government heretick or Infidel we are not discharg'd of our Allegiance we are obliged by the same divine Authority to preserve our Religion under it and to continue to it our subjection p. 18 19. the Church of which we have the blessing to be Members has restored to Princes and those that are in Authority the full exercise of their lawful Power their Countries and their people no place priviledg'd nor person exempted no forein Potentate sharing the Authority nor dividing their Revenue ☞ their Subjects bound in an Allegiance not to be withdrawn on any pretence of Schism or Heresie in the power of no Consistory to discharge And here we see no politick reserve that our Church hath not provided for it self any other refuge but in the providence of God and the piety of the Civil Power What was not her own she hath given out of her hands where she cannot communicate yet there she will obey and where she cannot obey she is ready to endure expecting her reward in Heaven ☞ not ignorant how much she suffers now from the contradiction of disloyal Men for the truth of this Doctrine and how much by its meekness she stands exposed to future persecution yet she professes to know too that her Saviour's Kingdom is not of this World that the rendezvouz against a Prince is not protected by being in a Church turns not her Congregations into Armies c. And though Parties seemingly opposite agree in the contrary Opinion we take not that for an argument of its truth equally detesting the holy League of the one and the solemn League of the other Doctor Harscard Dean of Windsor * Serm. before L. Mayor 1680. p. 13. Contempt of Government springs from that leud Opinion that Dominion is nothing else but strength and might that Philosophy that resolves all Beings and Actions into matter and motion lays the foundation too of all Obedience not Conscience and divine Commands ☜ but the strongest Arm and longest Sword only Subjects because they are over-power'd What doth vilifie our Governours more than this Principle Whom we beautified before with the Titles of sacred and divine but now are made a common lump onely of strength and power and are really weaker because their Subjects too like them are onely Arms but no heart or Conscience no internal Principle to oblige unto Obedience For if no inward persuasion or dread of an higher power but only fear and interest weakness and convenience are the bottom and reason of our Obedience where these shall change and the Man hath swell'd his Coffers procured firm Alliances and muster'd up his Armies and Confederates and other instruments of Rebellion he may then by the Title of Power lay claim to Dominion and set up for himself What signifies religious Oaths and solemn Vows to engage us unto Obedience which is onely an acknowledgment of weakness if onely external power must be their keeper SECT XXVIII Doctor Falkner's Christian Loyalty is written wholly upon this Subject proving that Government is appointed by God and is of divine Institution own'd so by the Christians who were persecuted by the Civil Powers and his whole second Book is employed in shewing the unlawfulness of Subjects taking Arms against the King upon any account and this he proves from the obligation of Oaths and solemn declarations from the Laws of Nature and humane policy from the prohibitions of both the Old and New Testament especially the New proving that this resistance is not onely sinful in private persons but in the whole body of the people and in subordinate Magistrates and I would willingly see a sober Answer to that discourse instead of puzling the World with little distinctions of persecuting according to or against Law. And in his Treatise of Reproach and Censure he shews how
ancient Right to his Crowns that any King in the known Parts of the World hath P. 178. Where Government in general in Scripture is establish'd and Obedience to Governors injoin'd it ought to be reckoned as spoken of our Governors and Government Ecclesiastical and Civil as well as of any other in the World. Ch. 7. p. 198. Whatever discouragement the Clergy of England have found they still preach up and persuade Loyalty to the King and by the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to temporal Authority keep People from Rebellion notwithstanding they have so often been jeer'd and abused with it * Serm. 2. of the unlawfulness of resist Ep. Ded. Mr. Payn. I think it my duty as a Minister of that Church and Religion which hath been often the Mark but never the Author of any Treason to publish these Sermons And that none may be so malicious as to think we calculate our Sermons merely for the present Circumstances as if the Pulpit were but a kind of a Weather-glass wherein the Doctrine of Obedience to Governors is higher or lower to the temperature or variation of outward Affairs I have put out a plain Sermon without any Addition that was preach'd long before the Plot c. When the ancient Christians were persecuted P. 7 8 9. they endured unheard of cruelties from their Governors ☞ and this often as they complain'd of in their Apologies against Law too Such as would have stirred up those who had power to defend themselves had they not learnt such Principles from their Religion as forbad it we are under the obligation of Oaths though there have been some who have forgot all Oaths and could as easily unloose them as Sampson did his Wit hs and then set themselves free from the Precepts ☞ and Examples of Christ and his Apostles by this colour and pretence that the Government under which they lived was of another Nature than ours in England and that such is our Constitution as makes all this impertinent and of very little regard here And by the same way might they not discharge Wives and Children and Servants from those Duties the Gospel requires from each of them because there was a great difference between the State and condition of those among the Jews the Romans and the Grecians formerly and with us now And afterward he shews Serm. 2. p. 22. That neither in the Case of Religion nor of Legal Rights nor in the case of Natural Defence and the otherwise remediless case of Mankind by the encroachments of Princes P. 27. it 's any way lawful to take Arms. And proves that the Law of Nature or of Self-preservation does not allow of resistance c. And closes all with these good Prayers God preserve Christianity from that reproach P. 37. and blasphemy which these wicked Men have brought upon it God preserve the Protestant Religion from that advantage which is hereby given to our Enemies to destroy it J. Kettlewell 's Measures of Christian Obedience Book 2. c. 4. A Duty to Kings and Princes being God's Vicegerents here on Earth is a readiness and resolved industry to maintain and support them in their Persons and Government not plotting and endeavouring our selves to give away their Lives and Kingdoms unto others or consenting to them that do so not submitting and subjecting our selves to them but violently resisting and opposing them is called by S. Paul resisting of Power or standing up against it Rom. 13.2 And this when it is made by great numbers and goes on to extremities when men are as the Apostle there saith set in array and posture of Defence against it ☜ and ready by force of Arms to wage War with it is Rebellion Book 3. c. 6. The first pretence whereby men justifie to their own thoughts the indulgent Transgression of several Laws is because those Transgressions wherein they allow themselves are necessary for the preservation of their Religion and of themselves in those times of danger and persecution wherein God's Providence has placed them Religion is in danger and like to be undermined by the close and subtle Arts or overborn by the more open and powerful violence of strong and witty Enemies And this is God's Cause and Christ our Lord and Saviour's Interest So that whatever is done here we think is in Service of our Maker If we fight it is his Battels Some on one Hand that call us Hereticks think no means sinful whereby they can weaken and divide And others again even of our own selves who justly abhor these damnable Instances of Disobedience upon pretence of preserving or propagating Religion in some furious and firy spirited sort of Papists for God forbid that we should think them all to be of this temper do yet run into the same extravagance which upon so great reason they condemn in them For if we look into our zeal for the common Religion of Protestants we shall find that we transgress many and those most material and weighty Laws of it whilst we express our affection and concern to defend and preserve it For doth not this pretence of preserving our Religion carry us beyond all the Bounds of Peaceableness and good Subjection Yea I add further that these same Fears for our endangered Religion transport us into the Transgression of sundry weighty Laws which oblige us towards our very Enemies who have contrived to destroy us Thus full of Sin and Disobedience is this sanctified pretence It is the Cover for every Offence ☞ and the common shelter for all Transgressions for we boggle not at an◠sin so long as it tends to preserve us in the prosperous Profession of our endangered or oppressed Religion But if Men would consider calmly and have patience to look beyond the surface and bare outsides of things they would soon discern the vanity of this pretence and how far it will be from excusing any such sinful and disobedient Practices as they think to justifie and warrant by it For as for true and substantial Religion for protection whereof they would be thought to venture upon all these Transgressions it stands in no need of their help to preserve it in persecuting times altho they should use innocent and just means not such as are sinful and disobedient it would live then without their care and whether they went about by any politick means to preserve it or no. For Religion is not lost when Religious Men are persecuted it doth not suffer when they do that profess it seeing it is not one jot impaired when Men are buffeted and imprisoned nay when they bleed and die for it ☞ Could the violence of Persecution have oppressed our Religion it had been stifled in the Birth For it entered in a persecuting Age and yet was not over-born by the pressure of its Sufferings but bravely overcame them It begun grew up and conquered all the World in the very Heat of Affliction and Opposition the more it
Intercession unto the King's Grace with all due Subjection that his Grace would release that commandment if he will not do it they shall keep their Testament with all other Ordinances of Christ and let the King exercise his Tyranny if they cannot fly and in no wise under the pain of Damnation shall they withstand him with violence but suffer patiently all the Tyranny that he layeth on them both in their bodies and goods and leave the vengeance of it unto their Heavenly Father But in no wise shall they resist violently neither shall they deny Christ's verity nor yet forsake it before the Prince neither shall they go about to Depose their Prince p. 295. as my Lords the Bishops were wont to do but they shall boldly confess that they have the verity and will thereby abide And this he proves by the examples of Peter and John and of Christ of the three Children and Daniel and then adds so that Christian Men are bound to obey in suffering the King's Tyranny but not in consenting to his unlawful commandment always having before their eyes the comfortable saying of Christ Fear not them that can kill the body which when they have done they can no more do c. The Weapons used by the Martyrs in those Days were Patience and Prayers and by those Arms they conquered their Adversaries So when the Martyr Bilney going to his death was upbraided Vid. Answer to Stephen Gardiner's Devilish Detection fol. 203. b. edit an 1547. that he being accounted an holy Man wrought no Miracles He answered with a mild voice and countenance God only works Miracles and Wonders and he it is that hath wrought this one Wonder in your Eyes that I being wrongfully accused falsly belied opprobriously and despitefully handled buffeted and condemned to the fire yet hitherto have I not once opened my mouth against any of you this passeth the work of nature and is therefore the manifest miracle of God who will by my death and suffering be glorified and have his Truth enhaunced This was the true way to get the Crown of Martyrdom and here you see the Patience of the Saints SECT II. The necessary Erudition of a Christian Man tho compiled anno Domini 1540 received not its Approbation in Parliament till ann 154◠being Printed in May following by the King Henry the Eighth's Order who thought it so useful that himself writes a Preface to it directed to all his faithful and loving Subjects with the Advice of his Clergy as a Doctrine and Declaration of the true Knowledge of God and his Word with the principal Articles of Religion allowed also by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Nether House of Parliament In which says our Historian Lord Herbert's Henry VIII p. 495. they handled all things with much moderation the King having labored first to make Tenents understood then to have them observed And tho there be in it Accounts given of the seven Sacraments the Doctrine of Purgatory c. yet the Ruin of the Popish Religion is unquestionably under the Providence of God much owing to the seasonable publishing and dispersing of this Book which came out both in Latin for the Instruction of Foreigners and English for the use of the Natives nor was it to be expected that Heterodoxies of so long continuance should all in a moment be condemned In this Book the Exposition of the Fifth Commandment teacheth us thus In this Commandment by these words Father and Mother is understood not only the natural Father and Mother which did carnally beget us and brought us up but also Princes and all other Governors Rulers and Pastors under whom we be nourished brought up ordered and guided And by this word Honor in this Commandment is not only meant a Reverence and lowliness in words and outward gesture but also a prompt and ready obedience to their lawful Commandments a regard to their Words a forbearing and suffering of them an inward love and veneration towards them c. this is the very Honor and Duty which not only the Children do owe unto their Parents but also all Subjects and Inferiors to their Heads and Rulers And after this having fully shewn the Duties of Children to their Parents and Parents to their Children from the Precepts and Examples of holy Scripture it proceeds This Commandment also containeth the Honor and Obedience which Subjects owe unto their Princes for Scripture taketh Princes to be as it were Fathers and Nurses towards their Subjects Then reckoning up the several Duties of Princes it adds And all their Subjects must again on their parts and be bound by this Commandment not only to honor and obey the said Princes according as Subjects be bound to do and to owe their truth and fidelity unto them as unto their natural Lords but they must also love them as Children do love their Fathers yea they must more tender the Surety of their Prince's Person and his Estate than their own or any others even like as the Health of the Head is more to be tendered than the Health of any other Member And by this Commandment also Subjects be bound not to withdraw their said Fealty Truth Love and Obedience toward their Princes for any cause ☞ whatsoever it be ne in any cause may they conspire against his person ne do any thing towards the hinderance or hurt thereof nor of his Estate And furthermore by this Commandment they be bound to obey also all the Laws c. made by their Princes and Governors except they be against the Commandment of God. They must also give unto their Prince aid ☞ help and assistance whensoever he shall require the same either for surety preservation or maintenance of his Person and Estate or of the Realm And further if any Subject shall know of any thing which is or may be to the noyance or damage of his Prince's Person or Estate he is bound by this Commandment to disclose the same with all speed to the Prince himself or to some of his Council for it is the very Law of Nature that every Member should employ himself to preserve an defend the Head. And that all Subjects do owe unto their Princes and Governors such Honor and Obedience as is aforesaid it appeareth evidently in sundry places of Scripture but especially in the Epistle of S. Paul Rom. 13. and S. Peter 1 Pet. 2. and there be many Examples in Scripture of the great Vengeance of God that hath fallen upon such as have been disobedient unto their Princes But one principal Example to be noted is of the Rebellion which Chore Dathan and Abiron made against their Governors Moses and Aaron For punishment of which Rebels God not only caused the Earth to open and to swallow them down but caused also the Fire to descend from Heaven and to burn up 250 Captains which conspired with them in the same Rebellion And the Explanation of the Sixth Commandment saith thus
Rulers and it is no News to hear it of them Elias had such measure measured unto him Micheas all of them faithful to Princes ever were so accused We say the Doctrine of Rome is no Friend to Princes and here he instances in the treasonable Books and rebellious Insurrections of the Papists and adds shew the Princes the Gospel hath deposed shew the Princes that Popery hath not wronged It is our Doctrine that we firmly hold and they fully defie That he that taketh the Sword shall perish with the Sword i. e. he that taketh it without the bounds of a calling warranting him and that calling he afterward says is only the Prince's Order as all Rebels ever do that he which resisteth the Superior Powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and to his own Damnation that we ought to obey and be subject not for Fear but for Conscience sake that the Weapons of Subjects be but Prayers and Tears c. See then whether Popery or God's holy Gospel which we hold stand better with the safety of Princes and flourishing Estates of Kingdoms c. SECT IV. Among the Works of Dr. Lawrence Humfreys Preached at Oxford 1588. which he published against the Romanists his seven Sermons on 1 Sam. 26.8 9 c. To persuade Obedience to Princes c. are not the least considerable In which having in the Epistle Dedicatory commended that Saying of S. Ambrose Rogamus Auguste non pugnamus We beseech O Emperor P. 22 23. we fight not and in the first Sermon mentioned the many Rebellions of the Papists he says Such a Catholick Faith must be maintain'd by such Catholick Means namely by open Rebellions privy Practices in a Catholick and Universal Manner that is by all unlawful Means P. 24. That when Scruples arise against such traiterous Enterprises then the Pope hath this Religion and Omnipotency P. 32. that he can dispense with any Oath In the second Sermon he teacheth every one his Duty It is lawful for a Magistrate to put to death a Malefactor otherwise no Spirit no Reason no Friend no carnal Respect can authorise any Man of his own Head or his private affection to draw weapon against any man much less against a double and compound person P. 34. c. as the Prince established by Law and publick Authority If Christ found fault with his Servant Peter fighting in his own quarrel ☜ host much more will he be angry with them that take weapon against his anointed Prince his Lieutenant in the Earth What do these Giants and Tyrants of the World think Or what do they esteem of the Blood of a Prince Or what do they imagine of the Ordinance or Institution of Princes Are they Upstarts by themselves c. No it is only the Ordinance of our living God. P. 36 37 By Office he representeth God he is God by name Saul himself is named here the anointed of the Lord so are all other Potentates that are by their Vices evil Men yet by Office the Ordinance of God Prov. 8. Job 34. By me rulers reign the Hypocrites rule not without him And why are the bad as well as the good advanced Austin gives two Reasons hereof It is not unjust that wicked men receive power to hurt both that the patience of the good may be tryed and the wickedness of the evil punished And if they are set up by God they cannot fall but by God. P. 43. What were the Magistrates in the time of Peter and Paul but Heathen and Tyrants as Nero and such others and yet Paul exhorts every soul to be subject to the higher powers and whosoever resisteth c. Even Nebuchadnezzar a Tyrant and Infidel was to be prayed for Chrisostome amplifyeth the excellent Integrity and Faithfulness of David toward Saul the anointed Serm 3. p. 56. in that David did this in the Old Testament where some revenge was in a sort permitted c. But to kill him or any the anointed of the Lord is contrary to the Law of Nature and all Laws Those that are disloyal and Rebels are not good Christians P. 63. P. 78. P. 106. We of this Land do swear and protest in the name of Christ a fidelity to God to the Prince and to our Country this Oath must be kept Many Laws have been made against Treason and Rebellion yet the unbridled and cruel Subjects have always unkindly and unnaturally conspired against their Prince and against their own Country Our King Ethelred complains in an Oration in this sort We are overcome of the Danes not with Weapon or force of Arms but with Treason wrought by our own People Anno 1593 Reprinted 〈◊〉 1640 c. Doctor Richard Bancroft afterward Bishop of London and Archbishop of Canterbury published his Dangerous Positions c. the whole Design of which Treatise is to expose and ' condemn the Republican Principles then newly broached in England by the Lovers of the Geneva Platform I have already in the Reign of Queen Mary given his Sentiments of the Proceedings of the English Exiles at Francfort against Knox whose Principles were so infective that they inflamed his own native Country and threw it into a most unnatural Rebellion of which their Ministers were the prime cause and shall add his sense of those seditious Doctrines and Practices * Lib. 1. cap 3. But because some peradventure will labor to excuse these Proceedings and to color the same with some pretence of zeal and great desire they had to be delivered from Popish Idolatry and Superstition I have thought it convenient to let you understand how far they are from making any such pretences in their own behalf and with what new Divinity Positions Mr. Knox and Mr. Buchanan have amplified the Geneva Resolution ☞ viz. That if Princes refuse to reform Religion the Magistrates and People may lawfully do it by force of Arms to the Justification not only of their said Attempts and Actions but also many others of the like nature Ch. 4. And afterward he mentions their Positions That Princes for just causes may be deposed That it is not Birthright only nor Propinquity of Blood that makes a King lawfully reign above a People professing Jesus Christ If Princes be Tyrants against God and his Truth their Subjects are freed from their Oaths of Obedience The People are better than the King and of greater Authority c. Of all which and many the like Propositions he averrs that they tend to the disturbance and utter overthrow of the freest and most absolute Monarchies that are or can be in Christendom and that they are contrary he was sure both to the Word of God and to all the Laws and Customs of this Realm But I must transcribe the greatest part of the Book should I cite all that is to my purpose in it while I leave to the Reader 's private Consideration that and his other excellent Treatise called a Survey
When the People set one over them Sert. 4. p. 17. reserving to themselves Authority either to displace or controul him or if need be to rise up in arms against him and to lay violent hands upon him they give unto him but improperly the name of a King. Obj. Sert. 5. p. 18. But was there no authority to restrain a King if at any time he should be impious or unjust in his Government otherwise the People might be miserably oppress'd Religion defac'd yea all things turn'd upside down and in the end the Commonwealth utterly overthrown Wisdom therefore Reason and Necessity the Glory of God and the good of Men required that there should be in Israel some Authority either in the People Priests Senate or inferior Magistrates against those Kings who did degenerate into violent and bloody Tyrants Answ This reason hath carried many headlong in heat to condemn and reject utterly these absolute Monarchies as Tyrannical and Barbarous c. but we ought not to suffer our selves to be deceived by any appearance to judge that to be unlawful and profane ☞ which God by establishing it in his Church p. 19. hath showed to be holy and lawful the authority of a King over his People was no less than is the authority of a Father in his Family in respect of his Children who if he do injuriously intreat any of them or live any way disorderly it is the duty of his Children if not with silence to suffer it yet with great modesty to admonish him of it but if they should joyn together and offer any violence unto him especially if they should throw him out of his house all Men would count them rebellious and ungracious Children ☞ but if they should take his life from him they were to be esteemed notoriously wicked yea rather as Monsters p. 20. worthy to be abhorr'd of all Men no Subject of what place soever no not the whole People jointly could lawfully use any violence against the King's Person or proceedings and that the King might tho not lawfully in respect of the law of God of Men or of Nature yet safely and freely in respect of his Subjects p. 21. do whatsoever pleased him according as Jacob foretels Gen. 49.9 the dealing of God himself doth prove the same who when he purposed to preserve David against the fury of Saul ☞ would never suffer him to oppose Ceila or any other of Saul's Cities against him but made him fly first into the mountains and deserts and afterward out of the land to the Philistines yea David altho he were appointed by the express Word of God to succeed Saul in the Kingdom yet he was so far from laying violent hands upon him that his heart smote him 1 Sam. 24.6 i. e. his conscience did accuse him that he had behaved himself disloyally against the King in that he had offered violence to the King's Garment because that was as a threatning of death unto him and a great disgrace yea further we do not read that God did ever by any of his Prophets stir up his People to maintain his true worship by violence against the Kings or ever reprove them because they had suffer'd them to set up Idolatry ☞ which is an evident proof of this point for if it had been lawful to resist in any case then surely in the maintenance of the true worship of God p. 22. and of his Glory no Man no company of Men could for any offence committed by the King either against God or Man the first or second Table call him to account summon him to appear in judgment or use any manner of violence either in word or deed against him To the Kings of Israel neither the Kingdom was given Sect. 6. p. 23. Sect. 7. p. 28. nor the conditions imposed by Man but by God and therefore they could not forfeit their Kingdom to Man but only to God but what was the behavior of Loyal Subjects in such cases the weapons which God gave unto his People wherewith to defend themselves against the Tyranny of their lawful Kings were these 1. wisdom carefully to avoid all occasions of the King's anger and injury 2. to avoid and decline from the violence and injury it self by flying 3. the third remedy where the second is wanting is patience to suffer with a quiet mind the violence or injustice of the King which could not be by wisdom either prevented or avoided 4. the last remedy is to appeal from the unjust Sentence of the King not to any Man or to any Court here on Earth but to the King of Kings even to God himself whose ears are always open to hear those who are opprest this remedy is the last and therefore not to be used but in cases of greatest extremity whenas the violence is too too grievous shameful and to Man's infirmity altogether intolerable p. 29. this means did Samuel commend unto the People whereby they should ease themselves of those intolerable burthens of tributes which their King would lay upon them 1 Sam. 8.18 saying then you being thus opprest by your King shall not rebel against him but shall cry unto the Lord. Where it is added that God will not hear them when they cry this is meant that could not afterwards put down their Kings neither be freed from their Tyranny The same Reverend Prelate in his Encounter against Parsons p. 187. says diversity of Religion changeth not the natural right of Inheritance this ancient Doctrine the Protestants still follow they still acknowledged Henry the fourth of France when he revolted from them but the Romanists would not admit him while he profess'd himself a Protestant And in his Causa Regia his answer to Card. Bell. Lond. An. 1620. c. 1. §. 21. p. 26 book de Officio Principis Christiani written by him when he was Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield he shews how vain that compact whether tacit or exprest is whereby Kings as Bell. says stand bound to the Pope so that by virtue thereof whenever they turn Hereticks or would make their Subjects such he may deprive them of their Kingdoms and whereas the Cardinal cited that of our Holy Saviour whosoever doth not hate father and mother c. is not worthy of me he answers ☜ that only ' signifies that we ought not to obey our Parents in those things which they command contrary to the true Faith but by no means what Bell. compact implies to rob our Parents of their Possessions c. 2. §. 9. p. 73 74. that Christ exercised his Priestly Office not actively in Deposing Princes but passively by giving his life as became a good Shepherd for his Sheep and when the Apostle armed St. Timothy he gave him not a temporal Sword to hurt any Man but a Spiritual to be exercised in suffering for so he commands him 2 Tim. 4.5 Watch thou in all things endure afflictions †E
both their Arguments and Authorities Sir John Hayward Ann. 1603. sets out his Answer to the first part of that Conference which was reprinted Ann. 1683. for the satisfaction of the zealous Promoters of the Bill of Exclusion The Book was written as himself in his Dedicatory Epistle tells the King in Defence of the Authority of Princes and of Succession according to proximity of Blood and to maintain that the People have no lawful Power to remove the one or repel the other The Jesuits main Argument is Hayâ— pâ—â— 1. Ed 〈◊〉 and p 3â—â— that Succession to Government by nearness of Blood is not by Law of Nature or Divine but by the humane and positive Laws of any Commonwealth and consequently that it may upon just Causes be alter'd by the same changing the fashion of Government and limiting the same with what Conditions they please But the learned Civilian confutes the Opinion with much Reason Pag. 6. and many very pertinent Authorities he grants That it is inconvenient to be governed by a King who is defective in Body or Mind but it is a greater inconvenience by making a Breach in this high point of State to open an Entrance for all Disorders wherein Ambition and Insolency may range at large When S. Peter terms Kings a Human Creature c. 2. p. 39 40 c. 1 Pet. 2. he means not as you interpret a thing created by man. Is a brutish Creature to be taken for a thing created by a Beast If so then all Creatures should be called Divine because they were created by God to whom it was proper to create And S. Paul says Rom. 13. That all Authority is the Ordinance and Institution of God. It is evident that in the first heroical Ages the People were not governed by any positive Laws but their Kings did both judg and command by their Word by their Will by their absolute Power without any restraint or direction but only of the law of Nature and when it grew troublesom and tedious for all the People to receive their Right from one man Laws were invented as Cicero saith and when any People were subdued by Arms Laws were laid like Logs upon their Necks to keep them in more sure Subjection Parliaments in all places have been erected by Kings so that neither Laws nor Parliaments were assigned by the People for assistance and direction to their Kings We must judge Facts by Law and not Law by Facts or Example which Alciat and Deciane do term a Golden Law because there is no Action either so impious or absurd which may not be parallel'd by Examples Pag. 46. I never heard of Christian Prince who challeng'd infinite Authority without limitation of any Law either Natural or Divine but where you term it an absurd Paradox that the People should not have power to chasten their Prince and upon just Considerations to remove him I am content to joyn with you upon the Issue Pag. 47. Had you no Text of Scripture no Father of the Church no Law no Reason to alledg Do not the Apostles 1 Pet. 2.10 13. Jude 8. Rom. 13. Tit. 3.1 1 Tim. 2.1 oblige us to pray for and obey Kings But perhaps you will say that the Apostles did not mean this of wicked Princes the Apostle speaks generally of all S. Peter 1.2.18 makes express mention of evil Lords And what Princes have ever been more either irreligious or tyrannical than Caligula Tiberius Nero the Infamy of their Ages under whose Empire the Apostles did both live Pag. 50 51. and write I will give you an Example of another time Nebuchadnezzar King of Assyria wasted all Palestina took Jerusalem slew the King burnt the Temple took away the holy Vessels and Treasure the residue he permitted to the Cruelty and Spoil of his unmerciful Soldiers who defiled all places with Rape Ruine and Blood. After the glut of this Butchery the People which remained he led Captive into Chaldea and there commanded ☜ that whosoever refused to worship his Golden Image should be cast into a firy Furnace What Cruelty what Impiety is comparable to this And yet the Prophets Jeremy c. 29.7 and Baruch c. 1.11 did write to those captive Jews to pray for the Prosperity and Life of him and Baltasar his Son that their days might be upon Earth as the days of Heaven And Ezekiel c. 17. both blames and threatens Zedekiah for his Disloyalty in revolting from Nebuchadnezzar whose Homager and Tributary he was What Answer will you make to this Example Princes are the immediate Ministers of God and therefore he calls Nebuchadnezzar his Servant and the Prophet Esay calls Cyrus a prophane and heathen King the Lords Anointed In regard hereof David calls them Gods And if they do abuse their Power ☜ they are not to be judged by their Subjects as being both inferior and naked of Authority because all Jurisdiction within their Realm is derived from them which their presence only doth silence and suspend But God reserveth them to the sorest Tryal horribly and suddenly saith the Wise man will the Lord appear unto them and a hard Judgment shall they have Pag. 52. If he commandeth those things that are lawful we must manifest our Obedience by ready performing If he enjoyn us those Actions that are evil we must shew our Subjection by patient enduring It is God only who setteth Kings in their State it is he only who may remove them 2 Chron. 1. Prov. 28.2 2 Chron. 28.6 And therefore we endure with patience unseasonable Weather unfruitful Years and other like Punishments of God so must we tolerate the imperfection of Princes and quietly expect either Reformation or else a Change This was the Doctrine of the Ancient Christians Pag. 53. even against their most mortal Persecutors In a word the current of the Ancient Fathers is in this Point concurrent insomuch as among them all there is not one found not any one one is a small Number and yet I say confidently again there is not any one who hath let fall so soose a Speech as may be strained to a contrary sense How then are you of late become both so active and resolute to cut in sunder the Reins of Obedience the very Sinews of Government and Order Pag. 54. Neither was the Devil ever able until in late declining times to possess the Hearts of Christians with these cursed Opinions which do evermore beget a world of Murthers Rapes Ruins and Desolations For tell me What if the Prince whom you perswade the People you have power to depose be able to make and maintain his Party What if other Princes whom it doth concern as well in Honor to see the Law of Nations observ'd as also in policy to break those Proceedings which may form Presidents against themselves do adjoyn to the side What if whilst the Prince and the People are as was the Frog and the Mouse in the heat of their Encounter some
☜ for if upon abuse of mdependent Authority they that have it lose and forfeit it ipso facto then authority and abuse of authority at least extreme abuse of it cannot stand together which is contrary to that of St. Augustine where he saith nee tyrannicae factionis perversitas laudabilis erit de bono consugali c. 14. si regiâ clementâ—â— tyrannus subditos tractet nec vituperabilis ordo regiae potestatis si rex crudelitate tyrannicâ saeviat aliud est namque injustâ porestate justè velle uti aliud est justâ potestate injustè velle uti i. e. â—â—ther shall the perversness of Tyrannical Usurpation ever be praise worthy ☞ though the Tyrant use his Subjects with all Kingly clemency nor the order of Kingly Power be ever subject to just reprehension thâ—ugh a King grow fierce and cruel like a Tyrant for it is one thing to use an unlawful Power lawfully and another thing to use a lawful Power unrighteously and unjustly SECT IV. After the happy discovery of the damnable Gun-powder Treason and the just execution of the wretched miscreants that were engaged in it the Parliament met at Westminster which had been first summoned Anno 1603. and with it a Convocation the Members of which reslecting upon the horrid design of Garnet and his Accomplices thought themselves in justice to their Sovereign and their own Principles obliged when they met to censure and condemn such Doctrins as led Men to such Rebellious Practices hereupon the Prolocutor of the lower house Dr. Overall then Dean of St. Pauls afterwards Bishop of Coventry and Litchfield then of Norwich whose vast learning gives him a character beyond all that can be said of him here drew up a Treatise which being reviewed by the Upper House of Convocation was mutually agreed on and declared to be the Sense of the Church of England in that very Svnod which made the Canons that as yet are lookt upon as the Code of our Church a Manuscript of which Acts This Book is since Printed by W. Kettilby an 1690. lib. 1. c. 2. and Canons having been happily put into my hands I cannot but think my self obliged to transcribe some Passages that discover the belief of our Church representative at that time They positively assert that God having created our first Parents and purposing to multiply their seed into many Generations for the replenishing of the World with their Posterity did give to Adam for his time and to the rest of the Patriarchs and chief Fathers successively before the Flood Authority Power and Dominion over their Children and Offspring to Rule and Govern them adding further Can. 2. if any Man shall affirm that Men at the first without all good Edacation or civility ran up and down in Woods and Fields as wild creatures resting themselves in Caves and Dens and acknowledging no Superiority one over another until they were taught by experience the necessity of Government and that thereupon they chose some among themselves to order and rule the rest giving them power and authority so to do and that consequently all civil Power Jurisdiction and Authority was first derived from the People and disorder'd Multitude or either is originally still in them or else is deduc'd by their consents naturally from them and is not God's Ordinance originally descending from him and depending upon him he doth greatly err Thus they account for the Government of the old World nor did the Flood alter the nature of Authority or alienate the Rights of Princes for say they If any Man shall affirm Can. 6.11 that the civil Power and Authority which Noah had before the Flood was by the deluge determin'd or that it was given unto him again by his Sons or Nephews or that he received from them the Sword of his Sovereignty or that the distribution of the World to his three Som did depend upon their consents or received from them any such authority as without the same it could not lawfully have been made or that this Power c. did not proceed from God or were not properly his Ordinance but that they had the same from the People their Offspring he doth greatly err Besides it is generally agreed upon cap. 16. that obedience to Kings and Civil Magistrates is prescrib'd to all Subjects in the 5th Commandment Ex 20.12 where we are enjoyn'd to Honour our Parents whereby it follows that subjection of Inferiors unto their Kings and Governors is founded upon the very law of Nature and consequently that the sentence of Death awarded by God himself against such as shewed themselves incorrigibly disobedient to their Parents or cursed them or struck them was likewise due unto those who committed any such offences against their Kings and Rulers being the Heads and Fathers of their Commonâ—ealths and Kingdoms which is not only apparent by way of consequence but likewise by example practice and precept as where Shimei is judged to die for cursing of David the Lords Anointed where David himself appointed by God to succeed King Saul would not be induced by any perswasions to lay violent hands upon his Master the King. If any Man therefore shall affirm Câ—n. 16. that it was lawful in the Old Testament either for Children or Nephews to have been disobedient to their Fathers being their chief Governâ—rs from the Creation till Moses 's time or afterward either for the Children of Israel either under Moses Joshua the Judges or their Kings to have been disobedient to them in their lawful commandments or to have murmured or rebelled against them or that it was in those times more lawful unto Subjects for any cause whatsoever either to curse their Princes Kings or civil Governors ☞ or to bear arms against them or to depose them from their Kingdoms or Principalities or to lay violent hands upon their Persons than it was in the said times lawful upon any occasion for Children either to have cursed their Parents or to have rebelled against them when they did reprove or correct them or to have withdrawn themselves from their subjection saying unto them they being private Men we will be no more your Children or you shall be no more our Fathers or bearing civil authority over them we will depose you from your Government over us and will be no longer ruled by you or to have offered any violence to them or to have beaten them and much less to have murder'd them he dâ—th greatly err After this they deduce the Scheme of Paternal and Regal Government through the several Ages of the Church down to the time of the Jewish Kings and when they considered the case of Uzziah who for offering to burn Incense on the Altar which was peculiarly the Priests Office was by God smitten with leprosie â— 1. Can 22 they aver if any Man shall affirm that Azariah and the other Priests used or that they lawfully might have used any violence or force against the
Father at his Devotions instead of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Sons in the Original we find the Vowels set in the Teâ—â— which is somewhat strange in that tongue without their Consonants ☞ perhaps to intimate closely that so many Circumstances concurring otherwise for the aggravation of the offence as Subjects to lay violent hands on a King and that in the Temple and that at his Devotions to add further that it was done by his own Sons however it be more vocal than the Blood of Abel yet the manner of setting it down should shew it also to be scelus infandum a Wickedness too monstruous to be fully express'd Two Sons there were that David had whom he especially as it were doated upon above the rest of his Children Absalom and Adonijah and both of these take their advantages as far as in them lay to tumble their aged Father down from his Throne and bury him alive to make way for their prodigious and preposterous Purposes the former by the Peoples favor which he had gotten by his Hypocritical Popularity the latter by his Fathers Feebleness backing himself by the countenance of wicked Joab and disloyal Abiathar this hard measure received good King David at the hands of those of whom he best deserved He saw the Law of Nature violated Conscience of so heinous a Fact contemn'd his Indulgence repaid with monstrous Ingratitude his try'd Valour outbrav'd by his own Subjects Pag. 8. But the Judg of all the World is not subject to like Passions with us none shall touch his Anointed for evil but evil shall hunt those wicked Persons to destroy them P. 10. Godoliah was too confident on his own Innocency and the Loyalty of those that spake him fair but the event proved it too true for his security gave the advantage which the Traytor taking performed that most wicked Design which made all the miserable remnant of Israel to smart for it P. 11 12. They who hold such Grounds in their Schools that the Pope may make void the Oath of Allegiance that Subjects have taken to their lawful Princes that upon a pretence they are faln from the Church and turn'd Hereticks he may depose them and that being so deposed they may be lawfully murthered by their Subjects What hope may remain that such so bred so taught so believing will ever prove loyal A Traytor is a man of Belial P. 16 18. who to the disgrace of himself and his whole Family impiously conceivs and rebelliously vents his Hatred and Disloyalty against his lawful Sovereign Treason is of a deeper tincture than other Sins deserving a heavier doom and therrfore of all true Christians the more earnestly to be detested P. 22 23. Had these Men remembred what the wise King Solomon had left them for a better direction Prov. 8. By me Kings reign c. they might have found that the bond of Obedience to Princes is not so loosly knit by God that Subjects may dissolve it at their pleasure or upon any Discontent or Injury whatsoever cry we have no part and renounce our Inheritance for as a Head never so rheumatick and the fountain of all Diseases in the rest of the Members may not be therefore parted from them for fear of a worse inconvenience neither can the Members upbraid it as the Apostle and Nature teach us with these contemptuous Words ☜ I have no need of thee So the Head in the Body politick must keep his place howsoever till that highest Authority take it off who first set it on to change it for a better the more pernicious in reformed States and Commonwealths is the wicked band of Antichrist who take upon them to sever those whom God hath so linked together What other conclusion do they drive at in all their Volumes against the King's Supremacy and Subjects Oath of Allegiance but to make their Followers conceit that they have no part in King James SECT X. William Barclay tho a Romanist having written Six Books against the Enemies of Monarchy Buchanan Junius Brutus Boucher and others Cardinal Bellarmine thought himself so nearly concerned in the Controversie as to write an Answer to the learned Scotchman Barclay being dead Dr. Buckeridge Bishop of Rochester undertook the Papal Champion Lond. 1614. and in Two Books fully handles the Power of the Pope in deposing Kings and having asserted * Lib. 1. c. 1. p. 11. That Authority and Obedience are Relatives grounded on the Commandment of Honouring our Parents and †Câ—p 8 p. 1â—0 c. that all the Ancients were of this opinion that Kings were inferior only to God and superior to all other Persons and therefore could be deposed only by God because Inferiors have no Authority over their Superiors and that their Misdemeanours are not punishable by their Subjects since they have no Judg but God alone he cites S. ‖ Lib. 2. c. 3. p. 217. Paul Rom. 13.1 that there is no power but of God and that this is a general Sentence and that therefore the Power of Kings is from God and not from the People He that resists resists the ordinance of God this also is a general Sentence and binds all Traytors and Parricides who conspire against the Lord 's Anointed who raise Seditions and Tumults take Arms and muster Forces against Kings tho they be excommunicated and deposed Lib. 2. c. 6. p. 281. And when Bellarmine had objected that the Power of Kings is not immediately from God because Men by a certain natural instinct choose themselves Magistrates by whom they are governed He proves at large that tho the form of Government i. e. whether it be a Monarchy Aristocracy or Democracy be from Men yet the Power is alone and immediately from God. Every King sits on his Throne as a God I have said ye are gods but can the People choose and constitute a Deputy in God's stead Can they erect God's Throne and communicate his Power to Men without his consent Power therefore is immediately from God altho it be given to this or that particular Person by the mediation of the People P. 282. Paternal and regal Power are the same in essence tho they differ in extent what a Father is in one Family that a is King in many Families what then Did the Power of Adam over his Sons and Nephews and all mankind depend on their consent or did it flow from God and Nature ☞ And are hereditary Princes who are not made but born so made Kings by the consent of the People when in the same instant in which the Father dyes the Son is King P. 289. If the Power of Kings be not instituted by men without God neither can it be destroyed by men without God Grant we the Proposition true that God doth give Kingdoms to the Subjects with the consent of their Subjects P. 290. for God can confer and transfer Kingdoms by Men and without
Christ provided for his own safety by flight the Martyrs by patience offered their Souls to God and the prayers of the Church have always prevailed over its Tyrannical Persecutors SECT XII Anno 1613. Dr. John Downham's sum of Sacred Divinity was publish'd in * Commen on the 5th Command P. 177. which starting the usual objection what must be done if Princes command things unlawful such as with a good conscience we cannot yield unto he answers in such cases we are patiently to abide the punishment in which doing we no way violate the obedience due to them as the Apostle directs 1 Pet. 2.19 20. Anno 1614. Printed at Oxford 1614. P. 86. Lancelot Dawes sometime Fellow of Queens College Preach'd two Sermons at the Assizes held at Carlile the second of which had for its subject Psalm 82.6 7. I have said ye are Gods c. and in it we are informed that Princes have their Authority only from God for ‖ Ja. 1.17 if every good and perfect Gift be from above even from the Father of Lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing God's People must proceed from the fountain the reason of all the sins that were committed in Israel is often in the Book of Judges ascribed unto this Judg. 17.6 18. c. P. 99. that they wanted a Magistrate there was at that time no King in Israel by me Kings reign c. it is not for a Magistrate to debase himself neither is it for others of what reputation soever to equalize themselves with the Judge whom God hath placed over them and this is not only meant of Godly and Religious Magistrates P. 100 101. 1 Sam. 8. but of Wicked and Ungodly Governors too such as are described by Samuel which take Mens Sons and Fields and Vineyards c. the reason is because the bad as well as the good are of God the one he gives in his love the other in his anger and be they good or bad we have no commandment from him but parendi patiendi of obeying them when their Precepts are not repugnant to God's Statutes and of suffering with patience whatsoever they shall lay upon us it was a worthy saying of the Mother of the two Garacs when they kept Sigismond in Prison Bentin â—er Hung. â—ec 3. l 2. that a Crowned King if he were worse than a beast could not be hurt without great injury done to God himself a lesson which she learn'd from David whose heart smote him when he had out the lap of Saul 's garment because he was the Anointed of the Lord altho he himself was before that time Anointed to be King over Israel and was without cause hunted by Saul like a Pelican in the wilderness and an Owl in the desert Then to draw thy sword and to seek perforce to depose such as God hath placed over thee either because they are not suitable to thy affections or not faithful in their places what is it but with the old Gyants to fight with God the weapons of a Christian in this case when such a case doth happen must be preces lacrymae prayers that either God would turn the heart of an evil Magistrate or set in his room a Man David like after his own heart and tears for his sins which as they are the cause of War Famine Pestilence and all other calamities so are they also of Wicked and Ungodly Magistrates P. 102. SECT XIII To what hath been cited out of Dr. Bois in the first part of this History may be added In Holy Bible we read Bois on Ps 47. P. 936. that David would not suffer his Enemy Saul tho a wicked King to be slain when he was in his hands for that he was the Lord's Anointed he had sanctitatem unctionis albeit he had not sanctitatem Vitae i. e. he had an holy calling tho not an holy carriage wherefore David said who can lay hands on the Lord 's Anointed and be guiltless and if Heathen Emperors in the Primitive times and ungodly Kings in all Ages ought to be thus obeved how much more a Christian and Virtuous Prince c. After the death of Robert Abbot Bishop of Salisbury were his Academick exercitations against Bellarmine Lon. 1619. and Suarez concerning the supreme power of Kings printed a work as it is called in the Epistle dedicatory agreeable to the Laws of Nature and Religion and very seasonable the Author of which having been the King's Professor of Divinity at Oxford * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4. vindicates the power of Kings and affirms * Prelec 1. Sect. 4. p. 4 that Pope Hildebrand Hellbrand Luther calls him that the first who assumed to himself the Power of Deposing Princes and absolving their Subjects from their Oath of Allegiance which Doctrine Sigebert a Writer of that Age calls Novelty and Heresie Sect. 5. p. 6 7. and when he treats of Rom. 13.1 be subject to the higher powers c. he says by Powers are meant Kings and Monarchs as the Word is used Luc. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they that exercise authority c. in which words Kings by a certain circumscription are defined because power belongs only and properly to them thus Origen Ambrose and Aquinas understood the words and Kings are not only called powers but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in St. Peter 1. ep 2. supereminent powers because in their Kingdoms they have power over all Persons being constituted the supreme and over all and to whom it is given to exercise that power over all for Kingly Majesty is absolutely eminent and above all being so constituted by a supreme right for as * in Rom. 13. St. Ambrose says it hath the Image of God that all others might be under one to whom because he is God's Vicegerent every Soul ought to be subject as unto God. This Sentence of St. ☞ Ambrose lays the unquestionable foundation of Kingly Power for it expresses that in the Power of a Monarch the Image of the Divine Majesty appears and that Kings exercise a Power over Men delegated unto them in God's stead and therefore must be superior to all Men because nothing can be higher than God whose Deputies Kings are P. 12. this also is the Doctrine of Optatus St. John Chrysostom Agapetus and other Fathers and so destructive have the Romanists thought it to their pretensions ☞ that the Spanish Index Expurgatorius hath ordered this sentence to be blotted out of Antonius his Melissae tho the sentence be in two other Fathers viz. Agapetus and Maximus A King hath no superior on Earth Prelec 2. Sect. 4. p. 19. and tho Kings may be made by Men yet their Power is from God by whose Providence and Conduct they are advanc'd to those dignities by Men and whom God either in Mercy Job 34. Prelect 3. Sect. 1. p. 25. or in anger decrees to rule even that God who
the Covenant Printed at Lon. 1640. disproves their pretended conformity with the French Churches in the points of Church Discipline and Obedience to Superiors averring solemnly P. 2. that it was ever far from our wishes that your conformity with the Reformed Churches of France should be misapplyed as a pretence of your expelling your Bishops much less a president for you to take Arms against your Gracious Sovereign P. 37 38. take it for granted that the Orders imposed upon you by His Majesty are Ungodly and Antichristian are you therefore allowed to defend Religion with Rebellion will ye call the Devil to the help of God Sure it is a prodigious kind of Christian Liberty for a Subject to draw his Sword against his Sovereign you that stand so much upon the point of conscience ought ye not to be subject for Conscience sake ☞ Were your Sovereign unjust and froward and his commands injurious unto God had ye instead of our pious defender of the Faith a fierce Dioclesian illud solis precibus patientiâ sanari potest nothing will mend it but prayers and patience it is Beza's counsel to the discontented Brethren of England conformable to that of St. 1 Pet. 3.17 Peter for it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well doing than for evil doing if the Sovereign come to kill the Subject for his Religion the Subject must yield him his throat not charge his Pike against him and this he proves by Calvin's Practice and Writings P. 38 39 40. the Churches of France have lately declared to His Majesties Ambassador there their utter dislike of the Insurrection of Scotland under pretence of a Covenant with Christ P. 41. there can be no just cause to take Arms against a Lawful Sovereign after this he treats of the French Protestants taking Arms P. 46. and concludes that till the Reign of King Lewis the Arms of the Protestants were either justifiable or excusable but their Wars in his time were neither and they prosper'd accordingly P. 48. the French Protestants had to do with a King of a contrary Religion they were incens'd by many wrongs and oppressions they were in danger to lose with their Forts and Towns their Liberty their Religion and their Life the privileges which they enjoyed were rewards of their long Services by the Charter of Rochel when they yielded to Lewis XI it was granted to them that they should be no longer the King's Subjects ☞ than the King should maintain their immunities and yet these true reasons and just fears could not justifie their defensive Arms against their Sovereign but they were condemn'd by the best of their own and of their neighbors and God shewed his dislike by the ill success he gave them And much more to this purpose is to be seen in his answer to Philanax Anglicus and in his Regii sanguinis Clamor ad caelum contra Parricidas Anglicanos Hagae Com. 1652 C. 1. 〈◊〉 5. for that being is du Moulin juniors and not Alexander Morus's as was conjectured affirming with the Apostle that even the Jews would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory had they known him while the Parricides of King Charles I. wittingly and wilfully Murdered their Lawful King and with the King beheaded also the Church of England and brought upon the neighbouring Protestant Churches abundance of Dishonor and much danger while the same madness was imputed to all the Reformation which had only infected a few who falsly called themselves Reformed Nothing hath happened since the beginning of the World more contrary to the glory of God or that hath cast a greater blot upon holy Truth while the Wickedness defends it self by the Doctrin of the Gospel and is said to be perpetrated to vindicate the Protestant Religion to the just indignation and abhorrence of all the foreign Churches for which reason Salmasius P. 7. Heraldus Porree and others wrote smartly both against the Men P. 17. and their villanous Principles It is a Law not only written but born with us and springs from the most pure fountains of Nature That it is a most horrid crime for Subjects to punish their Princes and therefore we do too much honour to Parricides when we use Arguments against them for as Aristotle says they who doubt 1 Top. c 9 whether God is to be worship'd or Parents to be honoured are not to be convinc'd by Reasons but by Scourges and Salmasius hath proved by unanswerable Reasons by divine and human Authority that the Majesty of Kings is unaccountable and that Subjects have no manner of Authority over them Cap. 2. p. 29 30. There is no fallacy of Satan which more prevails upon good Men to engage them in an evil Cause than when Men contrary to God's Word believe that it is lawful to do evil that good may come thereof and that God hath need of our sinful assistance to promote his Kingdom and that whatever is design'd to promote God's Glory immediatly commences good P. 52. the Judges at Westminster were turn'd out by the Army because being consulted they had given this opinion that to judge the King was against the Laws of England Cap. 5. p. 107. to argue from Providence and Success to the goodness of a Cause is impudent one man is hang'd for that by which another gets a Crown Junius Brutus by expelling the Kings of the Family of Tarquin saved his Country another Brutus by murdering a Tyrant ruined it perhaps the later Brutus did an act of justice when he slew an Usurper but the first was very unjust who drove away a lawful King by the murder of King Charles I. Cap. 6. p. 121. the Parricides taught the rest of the World that Kings may be guilty of breach of trust to their People that the People are their Judges and may condemn and execute them and these Tenets they are not ashamed to own in their Writings that they had freed the World of its old Superstition that Kings are only obnoxious to God and can be punish'd only by him that they had set an example to all other Nations conducive to their safety and to be dreaded by all Tyrants as Cromwel wrote to the Scots after Dunbar fight what an occasion of insulting is hereby given to the Papists to say Cap. 7. p. 135. this is the Religion which brings down Reformation to us from Heaven these are the Men who cry out against the Usurpations of the Popes upon the Crowns and lives of Princes only that they might themselves have that power over Kings when they had snatched it from the Pope But the Papists would suggest this with less fierceness if they remembred that those few who left us in this point went to them and borrowed their Weapons from them C. 8 p. 148. these Monsters do not content themselves with being simple Parricides but they turn Rebellion into a
had been specifyed and annext to the Command Law or Ordinance of Almighty God c. Anno 1643. Dr. Thomas Swadlyn Printed three Sermons intitled the Sovereign's desire and Subjects duty and himself was a Confessor at that time being Imprisoned for his Loyalty as he declares in his Epistle which he dedicates to the World wherein having proved that all Power is from God especially Monarchy he shews that every Soul is to be subject howsoever a King may deal unjustly with them Serm. 2. on Rom. 13 1. p. 25. either 1. By violating the Laws and inforcing their Consciences or 2. By depriving them of their Goods by extortions and imprisoning their Persons and though in the former of these cases he may not be obeyed yet in neither of these cases may he be resisted But what are we to do then Why we may either fly away as David did from Saul if we do not then we must suffer but at no hand may we resist When St. Paul says let every soul be subject he means 1. Let every Soul honour the King. 2. Let every Soul obey the King in things lawful and indifferent 3. Let every Soul be subject to the King in commands unlawful i. e. let every Soul patiently suffer when he cannot actually do If the commands violate the Conscience Id. Ser. 3. p. 29. 31 â—3 38. yet there the Power may not be resisted for to resist the Power is a sin second to none but Sacrilege the highest crime against Heaven is Sacrilege and the next crime to this is Rebellion against or disobedience unto the Majesty of Earth and whosoever resists the Higher Powers resists both God and the King the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and signifies whosoever contrary orders or orders against the Laws or the Arms of the chief Magistrate he resists the Higher Powers whether it be in subtilty of counsel or obloquy of speech and if so much more a heinous crime is it to take up Arms against the King. I have not spoken this to flatter Kings no they shall dye like Men but to inform you he that presumes sins against the justice of God he that despairs sins against his Mercy but he that resists the Power sins against the Power of God and he that dares take Arms against the King would if he could take Arms against God too and therefore as damnation is due to every sin Sermon at Whitehall March 22 1639. p. 18 19. so especially to this sin the sin of Rebellion Dr. B. Holyday Archdeacon of Oxford to strike one's Father was death by the Law to curse one's Father was death by the Law c. the Law then for the Son and the Subject being the same where is the love where is the fear where is wisdom where is grace where is nature are they not all fled from a rebellious heart had zeal antiently armed it self against Sovereignty we had never heard of a Calendar of Saints P. 28. Salus populi suprema lex includes in it the safety of the head and for the members of the body to rise against the head is it not unnatural is it not frenzy let them remember the breach of Israel P. 30. which did first wilfully depart from their Sovereign and afterwards unwillingly whilest perforce from their Country and that afterwards in two hundred years they had both many more and worse Kings than Judah had and were at last seized on by the divine judgment to the instruction of others but their own ruin we may not do evil Id. Serm. at Oxf. May 21. 1643. p 42 Sermon at St. Mary's May 19. 1644. p. 65 66. that good may come thereof royalty must not down for the advancement of Religion object Rebellion and ye object all crimes it is nearer to a flout than a truth to call a Rebel a Christian they will ask what is the final cause of a King and they will answer the Peoples welfare certainly a true answer and as certain an imperfect one the People's good is an inferior purpose of Majesty the representation of the Divine Majesty is the highest purpose of Humane Majesty when in all causes a King is next under God Supreme Governor how can the People whether single or united P. 91. be the Governor of that Governor a great Council may be the adviser of a Prince but as the Statute Law of our Prayer binds us to confess before God it is God that is the only Ruler of Princes Id. Serm. at Chr. Ch. Nov. 10. 1644. p. 106. a King Absalom would be not of God's making for he had made David not of David's making a King then he could be made only by the People and the Devil whilest by the People and Treason whilst against the consent of God and David Mr. Berkenhead Serm. on Nov. 3. 1644. at Chr. Ch. Oxon. p. 13. However we must perform active Obedience to such Princes only as far as lawfully we may so long as they are not set in competition with God yet we must perform Passive Obedience and absolute subjection even if they should command the most unjust superstitious idolatrous profane and irreligious things which can be imagined yet I say we must not Rebel unless we will renounce Christianity but we must let this be the touchstone of our subjection even our patient and constant sufferings SECT V. Dr. Henry King Lord Bishop of Chichester They Sermon at St. Paul's Mar. 21. 1640. p. 11. that lift up their hands against the King in publick Rebellion or their tongues in murmur against his Commands or their hearts in disobedient and discontented thoughts are as ill Subjects to God as to the King you need not ask whom have they resisted St. Paul tells you Rom. 13. they have resisted the Ordinance of God for he hath his Power from God. Men like the mutinous Israelites P. 36. upon all occasions of pretended discontent cry down Moses and set up an Idol made out of popular votes and contributions Id. Serm. before the King May 29. 1661. p. 22 c. to what Votes soever Elective Rulers owe their Scepters Succession is the Vote of God who both declares the right and then continues it as his donation Crowns conferr'd by other hands sit loose and tottering upon the head of such as wear them I will give it keeps them fast this is the great Charter by which Kings hold the right to their Kingdoms by me Kings rule where are those then who place the right to dispose Kingdoms in the Popes or those in another extreme who intitle the People to this power a strange prodigy in opinion not heard of till those Men came into the World who as was falsly alledged of the Apostles at Thessalonica Act. 17.6 turn'd the World upside down placing the feet above the head and subjecting the Higher Powers contrary to the rule of God to the People who by his command ought to be subject unto
the Rebel's Catechism wherein he shews that Lucifer was the first Author of Rebellion that the Rebellion even of the heart makes a Man guilty of Damnation in the sight of God much more that of the tongue or the hand that one branch of the Rebellion of the hand is the composing and dispersing of false and scandalous Books and Pamphlets tending to the dishonour of the King the other the taking up Arms against such Persons P. 6 7. cons p. 9 10 11 c. to whose Authority they are subject and it is worth our observation that not only the bearing Arms against the King is declared to be Rebellion by the Law of England but that it was declared to be Rebellion by the chief Judges of this Kingdom at the Arraignment of the Earl of Essex for any Man to seek to make himself so strong that the King should not be able to resist him although he broke not out into open act even defensive Arms are absolutely unlawful in the Subject against his Sovereign in regard that no defensive War can be undertaken but it carrieth with it a resistance in it to those Higher Powers to which every Soul is to be subject we find it thus resolved in Plutarch P. 12. that it was contrary both to positive Laws and the Law of Nature for any Subject to lift up his hand against the Person of his Sovereign with much more to the same purpose The same Author near about the same time See his Ecclesia Vindicata p 645 c Prâ—at Lon. 1681. wrote a Treatise intitled the stumbling-block of disobedience removed to shew that Kings ought not to be controuled by their Subjects either singly or in a body the whole of which learned Treatise as well as his other Vindications of the Doctrins and Rights of our Church will sufficiently repay the Reader 's expence of pains and leisure And in his Sermon on May 29. 1681. it is to be observed that such as draw their Swords upon God's Anointed use commonly to throw away the scabberds also and find no way of doing better but by doing worse no middle way for them to walk in but either to bear up like Princes or to dye like Traytors SECT VI. Of the same belief was Sir John Spelman in his Case of our affairs in Law c. that the Sovereignty is in the King's Person inseparably Pr. Oxf. 1643. p. 15 17 19. and the allegiance of the Subject by Law thereto inseparably annex'd fortifyed and enforc'd by Religion under the severe menace of damnation what streight then of humane Affairs can be so violent as to make Christian Subjects contrary to sworn Faith to Law and to Religion not only to disobey their Sovereign but resist and Invade the Sovereign Rights c. Anno 1641. Sir Tho. Ashton and many others Noblemen and Gentlemen of Cheshire tendred a Remonstrance to the Parliament against Presbyterian Government and in it they affirm that the donation of Sovereign Power is solely from God and so will he have the revocation too he doth not subject them to the question of inferiors but puts a Guard upon their Sacred Persons which to violate though in our own defence is a breach of his command even when persecuted as David was by Saul which precepts are renewed in the Gospel we see our selves bound by Oath to acknowledge and support that Regal Government our Statutes have establish'd our Laws approved History represents most happy to whom all Primitive times yielded full obedience to whose Throne Christ himself yields Tribute whose Persons God will have Sacred whose actions unquestionable whose Succession he himself determines and whose Kingdoms he disposes Tacitus tho a Heathen advises us to bear with the riots and covetousness of Kings as with barrenness and other infirmities of nature for while there are Men there will be vices but they cannot continue long and will be recompenc'd when better come In the 19th year of this King came forth a little book called an Appeal to thy Conscience as thou wilt answer it at the great and dreadful day of Jesus Christ p 2 3 c. the Author of which says that Subjects may not take up Arms against their lawful Sovereign because he is wicked and unjust no tho he be an Idolater and Oppressor 1. Because it were an high presumption in us to limit that command which God doth not limit now our obedience to Superiors is always commanded without limitation 2. We may not think evil of the King much less may we take up Arms against him 3. St. Paul saith recompence to no man evil for evil Rom. 12.19 If to no Man then certainly not to thy King 〈◊〉 That which peculiarly belongs to the Lord thou oughtest not without his Authority to meddle with but vengeance is his 5. Rom. 13. Every Soul none excluded must be subject there is no Power but of God if so then the Power of a wicked Prince is from God and the penalty of resisting is everlasting damnation both of Soul and Body in Hell-fire for ever 6. In Eccl. 8.1 2. the Covenant made by the People to obey their King is called the Oath of God and who dares break this Oath of God 7. God commands Touch not mine Anointed therefore thou mayest not smite him therefore thou mayest not bear Arms against God's Anointed 8. For Subjects to take up Arms against their own King tho an Idolater and an Oppressor is contrary to the practice of God's People in all Ages the Jews and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and the Primitive Christians 9. God's heavy judgments on those who have taken up Arms against their Prince tho an Idolater and Oppressor ought to be a warning to us how we do the like this is contrary to the Doctrin of the Church of England in her Homilies then he answers the usual objections for resistance resolves several doubts and removes other little scruples and in the close of all passionately advises all Men to return to the Lord and to do their duty P. 51. for 't is strange says he that God's Church can be no way preserved the Subjects liberty no ways maintain'd but by sin who ever heard unless from a Papist that the way to Heaven was through Hell shall we do evil that good may come Rom. 3.8 It would be a very needless labor to cite all the passages to this purpose that occur in the Books written between the year 1644. and the time of the King's Murther and therefore I shall refer the Reader to the Regal Apology Printed 1648. the Kingdoms brief answer to the Declaration of the Commons Pr. 1648. the Plea for the King and Kingdom 1648. with many other Treatises of the same kind only I shall mention Bishop Rainhowe who took the degree of Doctor of Divinity An. 1646. Vid. Bish Rainbow's life p. 41. when his chief Question on which he made his Thesis was Ecclesia Anglicana tenet
Subjects leave to withdraw their obedience from their Sovereign when he hath most need of their assistance so that assoon as any Town City or Province of any Prince's Dominions is invaded by a Foreign Enemy or possess'd by a rebellious Subject that the Prince cannot for the present suppress the Power of the one or the other the People may lawfully resort to those who are over them and for their protection perform all the Offices and Duties of good Subjects to them whereas the duty of Subjects is and all good Subjects believe they owe another kind of Duty and Obedience to their Sovereign than to withdraw their subjection because he is opprest and will prefer poverty and death it self before they will renounce obedience to their natural Prince or do any thing that may advance the service of his Enemies P. 92. surely this woful desertion and defection which hath always been held criminal by all Law that hath been current in any part of the World hath received so much countenance and justification by Mr. Hobbs's Book ☞ that CROMWELL found the submission to those Principles produc'd a submission to him and the imaginary relation between protection and allegiance so positively proclaim'd by him prevailed for many years to extinguish all visible fidelity to the King whilst he persuaded many to take the Engagement as a thing lawful and to become Subjects to the Usurper P. 135 136. as to their legitimate Sovereign Kings themselves can never be punish'd for their casual or wilful errors and mistakes let the consequences of them be what they will but if they who maliciously lead or advise or obey them in unjust resolutions and commands were to have the same indemnity there must be a dissolution of all Kingdoms and Governments but as Kings must be left to God whose Vicegerents they are to judge of their breach of trust so they who offend against the Law must be left to the punishment P. 163. the Law hath provided for them if all Sovereigns be subject to the Laws of Nature because such Laws are divine and cannot by any Man or Commonwealth be abrogated they then are obliged to observe and perform those Laws which themselves have made and promis'd to observe for violation of faith is against the Law of Nature ☞ Nor doth this obligation set any Judge over the Sovereign nor doth any Civil Law pretend that there is any power to punish him it is enough that in justice he ought to do it and that there is a Sovereign in Heaven above him tho not on earth To this great Minister of State I should join Sir Robert Filmer but that it is needless the Enemies of the unaccountableness of Kings having branded him with the mark of a State Heretick for his Orthodox Opinions which among all good Men make his Memory reverend and his works Eminent to which I advise the Reader to make his recourse particularly his short but excellent Treatise of the Power of Kings c. See also Sir William Dugdale's Preface to his view of our late troubles c. The Late Bishop of Chichester Dr. Lake having Aug. 27. 1689. received the Sacrament on his Death-bed did in the presence of Dr. Hicks Dean of Worcester Dr. Green and some others make this protestation being as himself worded it ingaged in the most sacred and solemn act of conversing with God See the Paper and the vindication of it not knowing to the contrary but that he might appear with those very words in his mouth at the dreadful Tribunal That I was Baptized into the Religion of the Church of England and sucked it in with my Milk I have constantly adhered to it through the whole course of my life and now if so be the will of God shall dye in it and had resolved through Gods Grace assisting me to have dyed so tho at a Stake And whereas that Religion of the Church of England taught me the Doctrine of Non-Resistance and Passive Obedience which I have accordingly inculcated upon others and which I took to be the distinguishing Character of the Church of England ☜ I adhere no less firmly and stedfastly to that and in Consequence of it have incurred a Suspension from the exercise of my Office and exspected a Deprivation I find in so doing much inward satisfaction and if the Oath had been tendred at the peril of my life I could only have obeyed by suffering c. Manu propriâ Subscripsit Jo. Cicestrensis To this great Man I should add his bosome Friend Dr. Allestrey who speaks fully and consonant to sound Doctrine on this Head but I must refer the Reader to his Sermon Novemb. 5. 1665. on Luc. 9.55 Vol. 1. p. 127. and Vol. 2. p. 60. and p. 253 276. Thus the acute Dr. Sherlock Some Men pretend great Oppression Serm. on Ps 18.50 p. 2. and Male-Administration of Government though their licentious noises and clamors sufficiently confute it for Men who are most opprest dare say the least of it The Liberties and Properties of the Subject is an admirable pretence to deprive the Prince of his Liberties and Properties Others make Religion the pretence for their Rebellion Religion the greatest and the dearest Interest of all but methinks it is a dangerous way for Men to Rebel to save their Souls when God hath threatned damnation against those who Rebel No Men fight for Religion who have any Religion is a quiet peaceable governable thing it teaches Men to suffer patiently but not to Rebel It is evident it is not Religion such Men are zealous for but a liberty in Religion i. e. that every one may have his liberty to be of any Religion or of none which serves the Atheist's turn as well as the Sectaries but is not much for the honor or interest of true Religion So that whatever the pretences are it is an ambitious p. 3. v. p 6 7. discontented revengeful spirit an uneasie restless fickle and unchangeable humor which disturbs Politick Government and undermines the Thrones of Princes In the time of the Fanatick Plot p. 7 8. p. 11. but to Talk or Write or Preach about Obedience to Government or patient Suffering for a good Cause was to betray the Protestant Interest God may sometimes suffer Treason and Rebellion to be prosperous p. 11. but it can never prosper but when God pleases and it is impossible Rebels should ever know that and therefore it is impossible they should have any reasonable security of Success There is nothing more expresly contrary to the revealed Will of God than Treasonable Plots and Conspiracies against Sovereign Princes Christian Religion indeed is the greatest security of Government both in its Precepts and Examples It requires us to obey our Superiors in all lawful things and quietly to submit and suffer when we cannot Obey And the blessed Jesus who was the Author of our Religion and our great Pattern and Example did himself practise
affirm'd by many others of their Writers Thus we find P. 1â— the most mischievous Commonwealth Principles have been very well entertain'd at Rome as long as they are subservient to the Pope's deposing Power and if we inquire further into the reason of these pretences we shall find them alike on both sides the Commonwealth's Men when they are askt how the People having once parted with their Power come to resume it they presently run to an implicite contract between the Prince and the People by virtue whereof the People have a Fundamental Power left in themselves which they are not to exercise but upon Princes violation of the Trust committed to them ☞ the very same ground is made the Foundation of the Pope's deposing Power viz. an implicite contract that all Princes made when they were Christians to submit their Scepters to the Pope's Authority which is so implicite P. 13. that very few Princes in the World ever heard of it it is declared in the Case of King John that the resignation of the Crown to the Pope is a void Act. And so consequently will the Imposing any such condition be as inconsistent with the Rights of Sovereignty if they plead an implicite contract who made such conditional settlements of Civil Power upon Princes ☞ who keeps the ancient Deeds and Records of them for all the first Ages of the Christian Church this conditional Power and Obedience was never heard of not when Emperors were open and declared Infidels or Hereticks what reason can be supposed more now than was in the times of Constantius and Valens that were Arian Hereticks Yet the most Learned Zealous and Orthodox Bishops of that time never once thought of their losing their Authority by it as I could easily prove if the design of this Preface would permit me If Christ and his Apostles were the best Teachers of Christianity P. 15 this is certainly no part of it for the Religion they taught never meddled with Crowns and Scepters but left to Caesar the things that were Caesar's and never gave the least intimation to Princes of any forfeiture of their Authority if they did not reader to God the things that are God's it requires all Men of what rank or order soever to be subject to the Higher Powers P. 16. because they are the Ordinance of God and to pray for them that are in Authority c. Thus far the Christian Religion goes in these matters and thus the Primitive Christians believed and practised when their Religion was pure and free from the Corruptions and Usurpations which the Interests and Passions of Men introduced in the following Ages and how then come Princes in these later times to be Christians upon worse and harder terms than in the best Ages of it in my mind there is very little difference between Dominion being founded in grace and being forfeited for want of it and so we are come about to the Fanatick Principles of Government again which this deposing Power in the Pope doth naturally lead Men to but this is not all the mischief of this Doctrin For 2. It breaks all Bonds and Oaths of Obedience how sacred and solemn soever they have been P. 17. there being an obligation to Obedience on the Subjects part which doth naturally arise from the relation between them and their Prince when Subjects are absolved from their Oaths of Allegiance they are thereby declared free from that natural duty they were obliged to before this is nulling the obligation to a natural duty and taking away the force of Oaths and Promises this is turning Evil into Good and Good into Evil that can make Civil Obedience to Princes to be a Crime ☞ and Perjury to be none this is a greater Power than the Schoolmen will allow to God himself where there is intrinsick goodness in the nature of the thing and inseparable evil from the contrary to it P. 18. for tho it be granted that God may after the matter or circumstances of things our Question is only about dispensing with the force and obligation of a Law of Nature such as keeping our Oaths undoubtedly is this he illustrates very Learnedly and at large in some following Paragraphs asking how comes the Pope to have power to give away another Man 's natural right a Man swears Allegiance to his Prince by virtue of which Oath the Prince challenges his Allegiance as a sworn duty the Pope dispenseth with this Oath i.e. gives away the Princes right whether he will or no. but how came the Pope by that right of the Prince which he gives away P. 19 20 21. may he not as well give away all the just rights of Men to their Estates as those of Princes to their Crowns Cajetan lays down a good rule about dispensing with Oaths that in them we ought to see that no prejudice be done to the Person to whom and for whose sake they are made he afterwards cites the several distinctions which the Roman Casuists use to vindicate this Power of dispensing with Oaths particularly Laymen that a promising Oath made to a Man cannot ordinarily be relax'd p. 24. without the consent of the Person to whom it is made except it be for the publick good of the Church ☜ as tho evil might be done for the good of the Church but woe be to them that make good evil and evil good when it serves their turn for this is plainly setting up a particular Interest under the name of the good of the Church and violating the Laws of Righteousness to advance it if Men break through Oaths and the most solemn Engagements and Promises ☜ and regard no bonds of justice and honesty to compass their ends let them call them by what specious names they please p. 25. the good Old Cause or the good of the Church it matters not which there can be no greater sign of Hypocrisie and real Wickedness than this for the main part of true Religion doth not lye in caâ—ting Phrases or mystical Notions neither in specious shews of devotion nor so zeal for the true Church but in Faith as it implies the performance of our promises as well as belief of the Christian Doctrin and in Obedience or a careful observance of the Laws of Christ among which Obedience to the King as Supreme is one which they can never pretend to be an inviolable duty who make it in the Power of another Person to absolve them from the most solemn Oaths of Allegiance and consequently suppose that to keep their Oaths in such a case would be a sin and to violate them may become a duty which is in effect to overturn the natural differences of good and evil to set up a controuling Sovereign Power above that of their Prince and to lay a perpetual Foundation for Faction and Rebellion which nothing can keep Men from If Conscience and their Solemn Oaths cannot Therefore 3. The third
mischief common to this deposing Power of the Pope and Commonwealth Principles Is the justifying of Rebellion on the account of Religion which is done to purpose in Boucher and Reynolds whom he cites at large and then proceeds to his second Proposition that whosoever does renounce the deposing Power hath no reason to refuse the Oath of Allegiance and then adds P. 29. it is very true this hath been the effect of this Blessed Doctrin in the Christian World Seditions Wars Bloodshed Rebellions what not But I ought to transcribe all that excellent Preface were I strictly to do the Author or the Cause justice while I refer the Reader to it at his leisure SECT II. Dr. Tennison in his Epistle Dedicatory to his Examination of Hobbs's Creed says Hobbs's Creed examin'd Lond. 1670. that Hobbs hath framed a model of Government pernicious in its consequence to all Nations and Injurious to the right of his present Majesty for he taught the People soon after the Martyrdom of his Royal Father that his Title was extinguish'd when his adherents were subdued and that the Parliament had the right ☜ because it had possession he hath subjected the Canon of Scripture to the Civil Powers and taught them the way of turning the Alcoran into Gospel and for these and the like Tenets he calls him an insolent and pernicious Writer P. 2. and when Mr. Hobbs had asserted that Nature had made all Men equal so that no Man can thereupon claim to himself any benefit P. 129 130 131. to which another may not pretend as well as he that from equality of condition competition arises fomented by equality of hope and from thence a War of every Man against every Man c. he rejoins that it is a very absurd and unsecure course to lay the groundwork of all Civil Polity and Reformed Religion upon such a supposed state of Nature as hath no firmer support than the contrivance of your own fancy let Philosophers discourse and make different Hypotheses of the motion of the Stars but when the temporal and eternal safety of Mankind is concern'd as in the Doctrins of Civil and Moral and Christian Philosophy then are Hypothesis framed by imagination as exceedingly dangerous as they are absurd wherefore such Persons who trouble the World with fansied Schemes and Models of Polity in Oceana's and Leviathans ☞ ought to have in their minds an usual saying of the most excellent Lord Bacon concerning a Philosophy advanced upon the History of Nature that such a work is the World as God made it and not as Men have made it for that it hath nothing of imagination for the faithful accounts of time give us another account of the Origin of Nations P. 13â— our Parents being before the Institution of Commonwealths absolute Sovereignâ—s in their own Families P. 141 142. after which he confesses that prejudice and self interest doth usually blind the understanding and cause it to put evil for good and humour and education and profit for reason and adds P. 147. if Men be lawless in a State of Nature and for the mere sake of temporal security do enter into Covenants and are obliged to justice and modesty and gratitude and other such like sociable Virtues only because they conduce to our Peace and to the keeping of us from the deplorable condition of a War of every Man against every Man then when any Subject shall have fair hopes of advancing himself by treading down Authority and trampling upon the Laws in a prosperous Rebellion what is It according to your Principles which can oblige him to refuse the opportunity If it be said that one Covenant is this that we must keep the rest It will be again inquired what Law engageth Men to keep that past seeing there is no Law of more ancient descent except it be that of Self-preservation for the sake of which we suppose the Covenants to be broken so that without the obligation laid upon us by Fidelity the Law of God Almighty in our nature antecedent to all humane Covenants P. 148 such Pacts will become but so many loose materials without the main binder in the fence of the Commonwealth which will therefore be trodden down or broken through by every herd of unruly Men Men are apt to violate what they esteem most just and sacred for the sake of Reigning and they will be much more encouraged to break all Oaths of Duty and Allegiance ☞ when they once believe that their ascent into the Throne and possession of the Supreme Power like the coming of the reputed Heir unto the Crown * Lord 〈◊〉 Hen. 7. p. 13. as in the case of Henry VII doth immediatly clear a Man of all former Attaindors this Doctrin is of the same strain with that pernicious Book Intitled Nature's Dowry Printed the year after the Leviathan that Rebeilion is not iniquity P. 149. if upon probable grounds it becomes prosperous that he who usurps not like a Politician is therefore a Villain because he is a Fool that all Usurpers in the World stepping up into the Throne by means likely to further their ascent pursue the Fundamental Law of Nature and are rightful and undoubted Sovereigns that the Earl of Essex in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth when he miscarried was a Rebel and a Traytor because he was a weak and unfortunate Politician but that Oliver who was sure of being Protector by the inclination of the Soldiery and possession of the Militia was a Lawful Prince after this he with justice taxes Mr. White as the †p. 93. first part of this History gives an account and then shews that Bishop Bramhal fled from England rather than submit to the Usurpation and that the other Bishops that staid at home P. 153 154. promoted the Cause of their Sovereign which if all zealous Loyalists had withdrawn themselves would by degrees have dyed away and because they refused the Oaths imposed at the Peril of their Lives and of their Fortunes ☜ they therefore are not to be judg'd treacherous in undermining the Usurp'd Government or disloyal to the King in injoying protection under Oliver whom they neither arm'd nor own'd in Power P. 156. It is not for you to pretend to Loyalty who place right in force and teach the People to assist the Usurper with active compliance against a dispossest Prince and not merely to live at all adventure in his Territories without owning the Protection by unlawful Oaths or by running into Arms against their Dethroned Sovereign P. 157. thus you give encouragement to Usurpers and also when Civil discords are set on foot as it happens too frequently in all States you hereby move such People as are yet on the side of their Lawful Prince whose Affairs they see declining to adjoin themselves to the more prosperous Party and to help to overturn those Thrones of Sovereignty at which a while before they
of other Mens sins that will retain their integrity and rather than do would suffer evil P. 〈…〉 what can there do These are they that are so pityed in the Text down then ☞ down to the place of darkness from whence it came with that Antichristian Principle that it is lawful for the People upon the ill managers and abuse of their Power by Arms and force to depose and punish their Princes this once admitted layeth the Ax to the Root of all Civil Society c. Dr. 〈…〉 p. 37. Nath. Hardy D. R. The Enemies of the King accuse him for being a Traytor to his People which was so far from being true that it was impossible since he never received any trust from them after which addressing himself to the Lord Mayor and his Brethren he adds you have taken care that Rebellion may be destroyed in that which was its Principal Engine the illegal League and Covenant and in its rotten Principles those Doctrins which give Power to the two Houses of Parliament in some cases to take up Arms without and against the Kings command and distinguish between the Personal and Politick capacity of the King as to the point of resistance c. Dr. Serm. before Lord Mâ—yer Fâ—â— 11. 16 Sâ— p. 22 24. Goodman Kings are God's Vicegerents and he maintains and upholds them in their Offices under himself a King hath the Stamp and Character of Divine Authority upon him it is the Divine Providence that is the Peoples caution and security against the weaknesses passions and extravagances of Princes so that they shall not need to resort to Arms or any seditious and unlawful means in their own defence we use to appeal to an Higher Court when we are opprest in an inferior Judicatory and this is our proper refuge when our Rights and Properties are invaded to look up to God the Supreme Potentate of the World that he will restrain the exorbitances of his Ministers P. 25 26. God is the King of Kings the safety of Religion Liberty and Property are mighty Concerns but certainly they are not too great a Stake to trust in the hands of God unless the means we use be as certainly and manifestly lawful as the cause we pretend to shall be just and honorable we shall but provoke Providence instead of subverting it P. 34. let the People be quiet not listen to noice and rumors but be sure to Banish all disloyal thoughts of resorting to irregular means for the asserting their pretensions Is not God in the World c. SECT XIII Dr. Burnet in his modest and free conference †Printed Ann. 1669. p. 6 7. Shew me one place in either Testament that warrants Subjects fighting for Religion you know I can bring many against it yea tho the old dispensation was a more carnal and fiery one than the new one is yet when the Kings of Israel and Judah made Apostasie from the Living God into Heathenish Idolatry some of the Kings of Judah polluting the Temple of Jerusalem as did Ahaz and Manasseh so that God could not be Worship'd there without Idolatry yet where do we find the People resisting them or falling to popular Reformations neither do the Prophets that were sent by God ever provoke them to any such courses and you know the whole strain of the New Testament runs upon suffering it seems you are yet a Stranger to the very design of Religion which is to tame and mortifie nature and is not a natural thing but supernatural therefore the Rules of defending and advancing it must not be borrowed from nature but grace are not Christ's injunctions our Rule Since then he forbad his Disciples to draw a Sword for him with so severe a threatning that whosoever will draw the Sword shall perish by the Sword this must bind us and what he says to Pilate on this head my Kingdom is not of this World c. is so plain language P. 24. that I wonder it doth not convince all Pope Gregory VII Armed the Subjects of Germany against Henry IV. the Emperor upon the account of Religion because the Emperor laid claim to the Investiture of Bishops they being then Secular Princes and this prospering so well in the hands of Hildebrand other Popes made no bones upon any displeasure they conceived either against King or Emperor to take his Kingdom from him and free his Subjects from their Obedience to him the Authors who plead for this are only Courtiers Canonists and Jesuits now are you not ashamed in a matter of such Importance to symbolize with the worst gang of the Roman Church for the soberer of them condemn it yet fill Heaven and Earth with your clamors Burn. Vind. of the Authority c. of the Ch. of Scotland ad Lector if in some innocenter things the Church of England seem to symbolize with them one great rule by which the peace and order of all humane Societies is maintain'd and advanc'd is Obedience to the Laws and submission to the Authority of those whom God hath set over us to govern and defend us to whose commands if absolute Obedience be not paid ever till they contradict the Laws of God there can be neither peace nor order among Men now it cannot be denyed to be one of the sins of the Age we live in that small regard is had to that Authority God hath committed to his Vicegerents on Earth the Evidence whereof is palpable since the bending or slackning of the Execution of Laws is made the measure of most Mens Obedience and not the Conscience of that duty we owe the commands of our Rulers for what is more servile and unbecoming a Man not to say a Christian than to yield obedience when overawed by force and to leap from it when allured by gentler methods hence it appears how few there are who judge themselves bound to pay that reverence to the Persons and that Obedience to the commands of those God hath vested with his Authority which the Laws of Nature and Religion do exact and the root of all this disobedience and contempt can be no other but unruly and ungovern'd Pride which disdains to submit to others and exalts it self above those who are called Gods ☜ the humble are tractable and obedient but the self-will'd are stubborn and rebellious yet the heigth of many Mens pride rests not in a bare disobedience but designs the subverting of Thrones and the shaking of Kingdoms unless governed by their own measures Among all the Heresies which this Age hath spawned there is not one more contrary to the whole design of Relligion and more destructive of Mankind than is that Bloody Opinion of defending Religion by Arms and of forcible resistance upon the colour of preserving Religion ☞ the Wisdom of that policy is earthly sensual devilish savouring of a carnal unmortified and impatient mind that cannot bear the Cross nor trust to the Providence of God and
yet with how much Zeal is this Doctrin maintain'd and propagated as if on it hung both the Law and the Prophets neither is the zeal used for its defence only meant for the Vindicating of what is past but on purpose advanc'd for reacting the same Tragedies indeed the consideration of these evils should call on all to reflect on the evident signatures of the Divine displeasure under which we lye from which it appears that God hath no pleasure in us nor will be glorified among us that so we may discern the signs of the times we must consider wherein ye have provok'd God to chastise us in this fashion by letting loose among us a Spirit of uncharitableness giddiness cruelty and sedition The Question is in general 1st Confer P. â—â—0 if Subjects under a Lawful Sovereign when appress'd in their 〈◊〉 Religion may by Aâ—â—s defend themselves and resist the Magistrates To which 〈…〉 he Nonconformist answers consider if there can be any thing more evident from the Law of Nature than that Men ought to defend themselves when unjustly assaulâ—ed he is a self Murderer who does not defend himself from unjust force besides what is the end of all Societies but mutual protection did not the People at first clâ—â—se Princes for their protection c it was then the end of Societies that Justice and Peace might be maintain'd so when this is inverted the Subjects are again to râ—â—me their own conditional suâ—â—â—der and excoerce the Magistrate who forgetful of the ends of his Authority doth so corrupt it to this Basilius the Oâ—thodox Aâ—â—ertor of the King's Authority gives the Answer which you find in the 〈◊〉 part of this History p. 73. distinguishing between the Laws of Nature and the perâ—â—ions of nature It is like the sacredness of the Megistrate's Power P. 12. was a part of the Traditional Religion conveyed from Noah to his Posterity as was the practice of expiatory Sacrifices P. 17 18. certainly the defence of Religion by Arms is never to be admitted for the nature of Christian Religion is such that it excludes all carnal weapons from its defence and when I consider how expresly Christ forbids his Disciples to resist evil Mat. 25.39 how severely that resistance is condemn'd by St. Paul and that condemnation is declared the punishment of it ☞ I am forc'd to cry out Oh! what times are we fallen in in which Men dare against the Laws of the Gospel defend that practice upon which God hath passed his condemnation if whosoever break the least of these commandments and teach Men so to do shall be called the least in the Kingdom of God what shall their portion be who teach Men to break one of the greatest of these commandments such as are the Laws of Peace and Subjection and what may we not look for from such Teachers who dare tax that Glorious Doctrin of patient suffering as brutish and irrational and tho it be expresly said 1 Pet. 2.21 that Christ by suffering for us left us his example how to follow his steps which was followed by a Glorious Cloud of Witnesses yet in these last days what a brood hath sprung up of Men who are lovers of their own selves P. 35. traytors heady high-minded c. I must confess my self amazed when I find St. Peter saying expresly 1 Pet. 2.21 that Christ suffer'd leaving us an example that we might follow his steps and applying this to the very case of suffering wrongfully and that notwithstanding that you would study to pervert the Scripture so grosly I confess P. 58. there is no piece of story I read with such pleasure as the accounts are given of the Martyrs for methinks they leave a fervor on my mind which I meet with in no study that of the Scriptures being only excepted say not then they were not able to have stood to their own defence when it appears how great their numbers were It was then no Legend P. 61. or shall I here tell you the known story of the Thebaean Legion which consisted of 6666 who being by Maximinus Herculeus an 287 c. Consider how Maximinus came in the â—â—g end of that great Persecution begun by Dioclesian and Herculeus continued by Galesius and consummated by Maximinus himself in which for all the numbers of the Martyrs and the cruelty of the Persecution there was not so much as a tumult which makes it evident ☜ that Christians of that time understood not the Doctrin of resistance the whole course of our Saviour's Life Id. Serm on Rom. 13.5 p. 25 26. was a perpetual tract of doing good and bearing ill and when he was accused to Pilate of being an Enemy to Caesar and pretending to set up another Kingdom he did in the plainest style was possible condemn all practisings against Government upon pretence of Religion by saying my Kingdom is not of this World if my Kingdom were of this World then would my Servants fight c. the Blessed Apostles followed their Master's steps in this P. 27. as in all other things and therefore having learn'd of our Saviour that Lesson of bearing the Cross and suffering patiently St. Peter doth at full length once and again call on all Christians to prepare for sufferings and to bear them patiently c. P. 29. profane as well as Ecclesiastical Writers assure us ☜ the numbers of the Christians became very soon so vast that nothing but the Conscience of the duty they owed the Supreme Powers obliged them to be Subject ‖ Id. myst â—y of Iniq. 8vo p. 73 75. The Bishops of Rome not content with their Usurpations over their Brethren and Fellow Churchmen their next attempt was upon Princes they pretended to a Power of deposing Princes disposing of their Dominions to others and dispensing with the Oaths of Fidelity their Subjects had sworn to them but I cannot leave this particular without my sad regrets ☜ that too deep a tincture of this Spirit of Anti Christianisme is among many who pretend much aversion to it since the Doctrin of resisting Magistrates upon colours of Religion is so stifly maintain'd and adhered to by many who pretend to be highly Reformed tho this be one of the Characters of the Scarlet-coloured Whore. ☜ Their contempt of the fifth commandment follows upon the Doctrin of the Pope's Power of deposing Princes and freeing their Subjects from their obligation to them by which they are taught to rebel and resist the Ordinance of God. we hold P. 152. that the Civil Powers are of Christ whose Gospel binds the duty of Obedience to them more closely on us and therefore if they do wrong we leave them to Christ's Tribunal who set them up but pretend to no power from his Gospel to coerce or resist them while we have a Zeal against Popery as a bloody rebellious and cruel Religion Serm. at the Rolls Nov. 5. p. 25 27 c. we
Party have been the great cause of all these inhumane Butcheries yet they have not been the only Actors in them there are another sort of Men who have had their Hands stained with blood and upon what Motives and Principles and to what degrees they have proceeded I refer the Reader to Archbishop Bancroft's dangerous Positions and to the History of Presbytery to satisfic himself Ch. 2 p. 7. 8. But tho several Murders and Rebellions have been carryed on by those that call themselves Christians yet neither the Christian Religion nor the Church it self did ever teach any such Doctrin or encourage any such Practice nay there are such Evidences against it that no rational Man that does rightly consider the matter can ever doubt but that she in her judgment and belief wholly condemns all such wicked and ungodly designs And for further satisfaction I will inquire into the flate of the matter P. 9. that all Power and Dominion is Originally from God is not to be doubted but by Atheists and that Governors act in his Name and by his Authority is as unquestionable among Christians now this Power is derived to them either from the Law of Nature which is common to all Mankind or else from positive Revelation and Assignment the first and highest fountain of Supreme Power is founded in that natural Dominion that God hath given Parents over their Children insomuch that if either Adam or Noah who were the common Fathers of us all were now alive P. 10. they ought to be the Universal Monarchs of the World but when the Father dyes and Brothers are scatter'd up and down the World and live independently one of another there can be no natural pretence for one to have Dominion over the other yet the necessity of forming themselves into Societies for mutual defence and traffick will oblige them to enter into Covenants and tho while they are free they may chuse different forms as they shall see best for themselves yet having once chosen and accepted of a Supreme Power they are not at liberty to cast it off again when they please but all the Rights Prerogatives and Jurisdictions which belong to Sovereign Authority are presently by God invested on it who does ratifie all lawful pacts and agreements and requires us strictly and inviolably to observe them tho it may fall out P. 11. that the Person somtime may be chosen by the People or Nobility or Senate yet the Power and Office it self was not made is not given nor can it be limited or bounded by them so as to destroy the Office it self or make it become no Supreme Power one Prerogative whereof is to be irresistible P. 1â— and not to be called to account by any but God. a Prince must use his Subjects as Freemen and not Slaves but if Princes do not their duty we must not revenge our selves for we ought not to be Judges in our own case for God hath told us that Vengeance is his and he will repay P. 13. therefore we must go for vengeance to those whom God hath appointed to execute vengeance in his stead if then our inferior Governors do us wrong we must go to the Superior who are made Revengers to execute wrath upon them that do evil But if the Supreme Powers themselves oppress us they cannot be judg'd by their Inferiors and there will be no other remedy but to leave them to the judgment of God who hath reserved their punishment to himself but tells us he that resisteth the Power resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation and 't is better to suffer unjustly in this World than to suffer justly in the World to come for since the last judgment in this World must be somewhere 't is fitter that Children should be committed to the judgment of their Parents and Inferiors to the Supreme than any other way P. 14 15. tho Princes are the Instruments yet it is God's purposes or commands that they put in execution whether they be for good or evil he inclines them to favor and mercy when he is pleas'd to try us with prosperity and kindness again when our sins call for judgment and indignation then he sends forth evil Governors or else permits wicked Men to act according to their own cruel and ambitious minds and the insâ—igation of the Devil but yet in the midst of judgment he does remember mercy they shall not do any harm further than God in his Wisdom shall give them leave and that is no more than is needful for our good so that we are to look upon evil Governors and Superiors that oppress us no other than plagues or violent Storms or Earthquakes sent from God from whence we may run and hide our selves if it be possible and use all reasonable means to save our lives by flight or the like but they are no more to be resisted by violence than any of those natural Evils we must by humiliation and prayer implore God's mercy to us in turning their hearts or some other way sending us deliverance as we do to avert a Plague or an Earthquake P. 16. but God hath given us no natural strength to secure our selves and thereupon will defend us himself and have us wholly therein depend upon his own care this belief it was that filled the World with Martyrs c. this made our Saviour confess to Pilate that he had Power given him from above to crucifie him c. it was upon this account that St. Paul said let every Soul be subject c. and in this sense those Texts and the Authority of Governors were vouched by the Antient Fathers and Councils and there is not one Writer for a Thousand years of any credit in the Church that did ever doubt of P. 17. or question this Doctrin but many of them have declared themselves fully for it that Sovereign Princes had their Authority immediatly from God and were accountable to none but him if they did use it amiss and therefore could not be deposed by any Authority upon Earth whether of Pope or People neither ought they to be resisted by open violence or have their Power wrested out of their hands by any of their rebellious Subjects those also that act in a War without the Commission of the Supreme Power or of the King where he is Supreme have not the Sword given them by God but take it themselves and therefore shall perish with the same And this he confirms as from Scripture so from the Doctrin of the Church and the sense of the Holy Fathers about it P. 40 41. and concludes It were casie to carry the same Doctrin through all Ages of the Church and to produce testimonies especially from the Articles and Canons of the Church of England and the Writings of our Learned Bishops and other Eminent Defenders of our Church but these shall suffice for the present and they are
are obliged in point of Conscience to be subject and therefore we are obliged in Conscience to be subject to our own Prince because he is the Minister of God. There are a sort of Men in the World who tho they do always complain that we do not quote Scripture enough when we discourse upon any other subject yet when we discourse about Subjection to Government do always complain that we quote too much ☜ and therefore they are by no means willing that the Case of Subjection should be measured by that Rule tho Government is the Ordinance of God if the Scripture had never acquainted us with any such thing I would have it consider'd pag. 14. that neither the Laws of Nature Reason nor Justice will ever allow us to endeavour to strip the lawful Governours of any Places either where we live or where we are born Subjects of their Authority any more than they will allow us to take away any other Man's lawful Right or just Possessions For for that very reason that Supremacy is a Right that belongs to them Subjection is a Duty that belongs to us These Laws of Nature Reason and Religion are the Laws of God. If therefore the Law of God does command our Subjection to the Higher Powers tho the Scripture had never told us any such thing pag. 15. then let the Government have been formed when it will ☞ and by whom it will yet in such a Case because the Governors have a just and undoubted Title to and Possession of their Supremacy we cannot withdraw our Subjection from them unless we break the Law of God. The only Objection that I can foresee against this is this When the Actions of the Higher Powers without any regard to the Laws of Justice or the Government do manifestly tend to the Subversion of Justice and Right and instead thereof do load our Necks with Injuries and Oppressions pag. 16. then we may fairly and honestly renounce our Subjection Before I speak directly to the Objection I must premise 1. That that Design is justly suspâ—cious which measures our Duty by our temporal Interest And 2. That it is as well an act of Subjection peaceably and quietly to submit to the Penalty as it is actually to obey the Command Now if our Adversaries do not allow the Obligation to this disjunctive Subjection it is apparent that when they tell us we are not to be subject in the Case objected their meaning is we may defend our Disobedience by Resistance and then the Objection put into plain English amounts to thus much That whenever the Prince does not govern us according to the Laws of Justice and those of the Land pag. 17. there it is lawful for us to resist and rebel against him This Doctrine is seditious and treasonable and likewise absurd and false for if a Subject does resist his Prince tho it be in such a Case in which it is supposed that his Prince does him an Injury he does by so doing stand guilty of these following Acts of Injustice 1. He takes upon him to be Judg in his own Case Now because he that does so may be rationally supposed to be biassed in his Judgment by Self-Love by Malice Revenge Covetousness and the like train of Lusts and Passions and over and above in the present Case by Pride and Ambition Therefore all those wise Men who have made it their business to instruct us in the Laws of Justice and Equity have with one consent condemned the practice of it Nay the Rebel is both Judg and Executioner too in his own Case 2. pag. 18. He that resists his Prince upon supposition that his Government is unjust is therefore so himself not only in that he undertakes to be a Judg in his own Cause but in that also he does by so doing usurp to himself that Jurisdiction which of right does belong to another For there is no doubt but that the Title to the Sword is of right lodged in the Prince's Power and there can be as little doubt that the Subject can acquire no Right from the Injustice of the Prince to force it thence For by the same Law that the Injustice of a Prince does entitle his Subjects to wrest the Power of the Sword out of his hand against himself pag. 19. I say by the same Law the Injustice of any private Man would give the injured Person a Title to the Estate and Life of the injurious And so new Titles would continually start up with new Injuries and in a little time the Right to the whole World would tho perhaps the possession might not belong to injur'd Persons as such 3. pag. 20. He that resists his Prince upon supposition that his Government is unjust is so himself not only in that he usurps to himself that Jurisdiction which of right belongs to the Prince alone but in that he invades the Rights of his Fellow-Subjects for tho it should prove true that the Prince by his Injury to the Rebel does forfeit his Title to his Government over him yet there is another Enquiry behind Whether or no by such his Injury he forfeits his Title over the rest of his Subjects if he does then he may forfeit his Title as well where he has not done an Injury as where he has if he does not then the resistance of the Rebel is unjust ' There are several Conclusions that offer themselves from the Doctrin already delivered pag. 23. the first is this 1. Ought we to be subject for Conscience sake and is therefore our Obligation to Subjection bound upon us by the hand of God himself Then we may very fairly infer that both the Doctrin and Practice of Resistance comes from the Devil For most undoubtedly any Practice or Doctrin does so that stands in Diametrical Opposition to any Duty that is laid upon us by God. When People resist their Prince and at the same time pretend to fear God such their Pretensions are not only false but blasphemous too 2. If we are bound in Conscience to be subject to the Higher Powers pag. 27 and if such Obligation comes only from God then we do infer that no lawful Authority can be founded in mere outward Force The reason is because our Duty of Subjection to lawful Authority arises from an Obligation of Conscience Now tho a long Sword may have terror enough in it in many Cases at least to awe our outward Actions yet it can never have Power enough to oblige our Consciences And tho it may upon the account of our Interest engage us to a Compliance yet it will never be able upon the account of our Consciences to engage us to an Obedience For if mere Power can instate a Man in a just Title to the Supremacy then it will follow that whoever has Power enough to invade the Throne has Right enough to possess it and his Usurpation will therefore become lawful because his
Spoil and Robbery of the Subjects may no less considering the nature of the Crime deserve such Punishment of Princes as they do 〈◊〉 People But because there is none in such Cases that can or ought duely and regularly to execute such Laws because there can be no such Execution without the Power of the Sword and there can be but one proper Subject of that Power in any Republick And of all guilt I know not whether any be greater than the assuming of such a Power which no ways belongs to a Man for better it were to take away ones Horse or to ravish another Man's Wife or to extort unjustly anothers Estate than to divest a Prince of his Right of Rule and usurp it to himself and that first because no Man's Estate or any thing that is his doth descend to him or otherways become his by the like divine Title as the Supream Power rightly posited and possessed doth to the Owner thereof and therefore this being more sacred the Invasion of this Right is much more wicked and unjust Secondly because a publick mischief and of general influence upon all is much more intolerable than a private But such a Violation of Princely Rights must of necessity draw a publick mischief on the whole civil Body I mean all the Subjects in such a Nation who shall be distracted between the sense of Obedience known otherwise to be due and the terror of usurped Power threatning ruine to such as comply not with their Injustice Pag. 104. Some late Demagogues have written for the promotion of Religion forsooth as well as Civil Liberty that to kill Tyrants and here I will not shew who they call Tyrants is as good an act as to slay Wolves Lions and Bears But I would fain know whence such a Law proceeded if not from Tyranny it self Even such persons who under colour of natural Law of returning evil for evil and self-preservation have done the greatest injustice imaginable not only against the person persecuted but the people who never at any time had power so to deliver themselves nor if they had did generally and unanimously or could confer the same on the new Pretenders to it That Law therefore of killing Tyrants invented by Tyrants taketh place on the Authors of it as much as any body else and where the like Power can be snatched up may have the same event on popular Statesmen as well as Kings and Princes For they are Tyrants too Mr. Jos Glanvil's Sermon of Christian Loyalty published by Anth. Horneck D. D. on Rom. 13.2 They that resist shall receive to themselves damnation Pag. 153 154. Which words were spoken in the days of Nero who besides that he was an Heathen was a Persecutor and a Tyrant and the most infamous instance in Nature and yet this Monster is not excepted as to the tribute of Obedience Whereas had this been said in the days of such a Prince as our Charles the First it might have been suppos'd that the vertue of the Person claim'd the reverence and subjection and not the Character of the Prince And that 't was damnable to resist because he was good not because he was supreme because he was a Nursing-father of the Church not because the ruling Father of his Countrey 'T was an happy Coincidence therefore to secure the Authority of the Magistrate which answers the greatest pretensions of Rebellion If Religion be pretended an Heathen must not be resisted If Tyranny 't is damnation to oppose a Nero. Pag. 156. Kings wear God's Image and Authority but besides there is evidence enough in the nature of the thing to prove that Kings have their Power and Authority from God and are no Substitutes of the People Pag. 157 158 159. They that Rule are God's Substitutes and no Creatures of the People for the People have no power to govern themselves and consequently cannot devolve any upon another Resistance is opposite to the Spirit of Religion Religion is of a calm and pacifick temper like that of its Author whose voice was not heard in the street He commands the payment of all Duties to Cesar He acknowledgeth Pilates Power to be from above He commands his Disciples to pray for their Persecutors He permits them to fly not to oppose He rebukes Peter 's violence to the High Priests Servant and the revenge of the Disciples when they called for fire from Heaven He paid Tribute submitted to the Laws of the Sanhedrim and to that unjust sentence against his life This was his temper and the Apostles who liv'd among his Enemies and theirs and met with severity enough to have soured their spirits and exasperated their Pens to contrary resolutions and instructions yet as true followers of their dear Lord they faithfully transmit to us what they had learn'd from him viz. That we should obey those that have the rule over us submit to every Ordinance of Man pray for Kings and all in Authority submit to Principalities and Powers and to obey Magistrates And those Noble Spirits of the first Ages after who began to be Martyrs as soon as to be Christians who lived in the Fire and went to Heaven wrap'd in those flames that had less arder than their love These I say amidst the greatest and fiercest fires that cruelty and barbarism had kindled paid the tribute of a peaceable and quiet subjection to their Murtherers and made unforced acknowledgments of the right they had to their obedience Pag. 157 158 159. Nor do we ever read of any attempts they made to free themselves by resistance though as Tertullian saith they were in powerful numbers mingled in their Villages and in their Cities yea in their Castles and in their Armies Yea there is an illustrious instance of Passive Obedience in the Thebean Legion whose tenth Man being executed for not offering sacrifice to Idols they quietly submitted to the Cruelty And a second Dicimation being commanded by Maximinian the Author of the first one of their great Commanders an excellent Christian persuades them to suffer it with the same patience because it was not with their Swords they could make their way to the Kingdom of Heaven but by another kind of Warfare Pag. 163. By a dear experience we have learned that 't is better to endure any inconveniences in a setled Government than to endeavour violent alterations Doctor Anth. The Letter he makes his own p. 478. and advises others to follow the Example of these Primitive Christians p. 541. Horneck's Letter to a Person of quality at the end of his best Exercise speaking of the heavenly Lives of the Primitive Christians he saith Pag. 496. They looked upon Christianity as a Religion that taught them to suffer valiantly Pag. 534. 535. To their Princes and Magistrates they were ever very submissive and in all lawful things obedient to a tittle In their Prayers they always remembred them and though they persecuted and afflicted them yet that did not abate their Zeal and Vows for their